Dream Walker
by Spiral Reflection
Summary: It wasn't that he liked staying up late into the night playing pranks but then again it wasn't like he enjoyed the haunting nightmares. When the sandman decides to take action, Naruto finds himself gifted with a new ability that helps even the odds.
1. This is what dreams are made of

DISCLAIMER: I do not own Naruto.

Hello people of the fanfiction community. If you are reading this then that means that you read the summary and decided that this story might be worth your time. I have no idea if it is but I hope it is. This idea was born from my slight obsession with my subconscious and déjà vu moments and I've been debating with myself on whether or not I ought to put it up. I decided that I would put up a test chapter and then depending on the feedback I might continue or take it off. Please read it to the end before you decide. Thank you.

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><p>The human brain. That wonderfully misunderstood device with the ability to define the world. It is, perhaps, the strongest weapon in a humans arsenal. But the ability to perfectly wield it is a skill beyond even the greatest humans to date. Even still, the tiny bit of it that mortals make use of is still enough to devastate the world we know. Dreams, many have looked at these strange phenomena and tried to classify them. To some, dreams are nothing but a series of random images compiled by the mind to keep us entertained while we sleep. To others, dreams are a portal to our subconscious: a set of messages compiled by our subconscious to give us an idea of our physical and mental well being, and perhaps help us to come up with solutions to our problems as we slumber. What about our subconscious? Our brain functions in mysterious ways which we are not aware of. That sudden tingling in our spines that warns of imminent dangers; the feeling that we are being watched that we can never really place, the constant escaping of ideas that we feel must be important. Even to date these functions of our brains are not fully understood. The riddles that we could solve, the ideas that we may explore and the possibilities that could be discover if only we could communicate with our subconscious. Yes there are ways that we use to try to better understand and help us better connect with the ever illusive subconscious mind but all in all we may never fully understand the wonderful powers that lies sleeping in our beautifully complex minds.<p>

The night was calm: the black sky dotted with a countless number of stars and a gentle breeze was calmly blowing causing the leaves of the many trees in the area to rustle. The full moon was up ahead and clearly lighted the clearing, diminishing all need for artificial lighting. A small pond, sparkled in the moon light, the surface becoming disturbed every time one of the images shown in the water changed. In the middle of it all was a shelter. Not a shelter per say. The white slanted roof was supported by twelve white marble pillars- six on each side- equally spaced and designed identically with leafy patterns. On the floor in the shelter was a soft carpet that looked and felt like clouds and in the middle of it all sat a woman.

She wore a beautiful long light blue sleeveless dress that was lightly secured around the waist with a sash which was a darker blue than the rest of the dress. On her feet were set of beautiful golden ancient roman styled sandals and around her neck was a beautiful necklace set with precious stones as dark as the night sky. Her long black hair was straight and silky with two bangs framing her small beautiful pixie like face. Dark green eyes peered anxiously into the glass of a round, golden, body length mirror that was set before her and seemed to be displaying some images.

Though the looking glass you could see a small boy, no older than six, being chased by a large mob. He had bright yellow hair and large wonderfully blue eyes set into a small round face- he was adorable

As the ruler of the night realm, it was her job to ensure that all was peaceful in the night. Particularly rambunctious little brats always amused her, she was never angry at them like their parents were. Most of them had the wildest imaginations ever. A little sand, a little inconspicuous whispering of a lullaby by one of her dream- weavers and they were off to bed.

Six years ago her attention had been directed almost wholly on the ninja village of Konoha no Sato. The Kyuubi had attacked throwing the village into chaos. All the villagers had been petrified and become more susceptible to the sand of nightmare- weavers, it was horrible. She had been particularly occupied trying to smooth out the problems and amidst it all the cry of a small baby had caught her attention. The new container: Naruto Uzumaki. From a very young age the malicious chakra leaked by the fox had made him more open to nightmares, couple that with the way he was treated and you had one miserable little boy who from early on in life had nightmares that would chill the blood of highly seasoned ninjas.

He had started staying up later and later into the night, always afraid of the images he might receive if he fell asleep. Slowly he became more impervious to the sand, his mind rejecting the effects- putting him to sleep was extremely troublesome. About a year back, after he had begun at the ninja academy, the boy had discovered the joys of pranking people and he had taken to it like a fish to water. He had begun pulling more and more pranks- even in the night. Not only did he enjoy the attention he got from the villagers, he also loved the adrenalin rush that he had as he escaped from the villagers, it ensured that he did not fall asleep. The images from the nightmares plagued him even during the day so where other children opted to nap Naruto Uzumaki opted to remain awake. That was it simply.

She was worried. She loved his mischievousness, she could identify with it. Whenever he was not having nightmares it was fun to watch his dreams. She wanted to help him but her options were severely limited. As an angel there was a certain limit as to how much she could interfere in the lives of mortals. The method she wished to use was a method that was reserved for coma patients mostly.

When a person was hurt severely to the point that they were trapped in their own minds, they were given certain abilities: the ability to traverse their subconscious. Unfortunately humans were so weak. Some of them went so far into their subconscious, much further than they were allowed in, and they were trapped in their own minds; some went far in and it took them years to finally escape, sometimes they became traumatised and even if they remembered nothing of their coma induced adventure they became mad or paranoid; others got confused and became so sure that the worlds they had created in their mind was their reality and they refused to escape; the worst of these were the ones that learnt to project their subconscious reality into the minds of others, these people sometimes messed with the minds of others, or lived so long away from their bodies that when they finally wished to return they couldn't, some were caught by nightmare weavers and they were taken down by their blades. The blades of nightmare- weavers did not have the power to kill you, oh no, their blades instead eternally trapped your minds in a dark abyss, in that dark and empty void you were tormented by the deafening silence and your mind seemed forced to think about your worst mistakes and greatest fears. These people were better off dead but unfortunately for some of them they had families who believed they could be brought back and did anything they could to ensure that they were kept alive. Years passed and they were still trapped in that dark abyss.

After several thousand years of watching many humans make the same foolish mistakes despite her clear warnings she had chosen to stop granting them those abilities. But now, as she watched the small boy punished for saving the lives of his fellow villagers she was tempted to act. He was very much awake, but still…. She looked at the screen and her heart leapt to her throat. There was a leg sticking out from behind a building and Naruto, who was close to the brink of collapse from not sleeping for three days straight, did not notice it. He tripped and the villagers quickly closed in on his tiny trembling body.

"Elsa!" her voice was sharp and commanding.

A beautiful angel with pure white wings suddenly materialised in front of her now standing body.

"I leave you in charge while I am out."

"Yes of course commander." The angel named Elsa replied.

With that she turned into sand and disappeared giving her subordinate a clear view of the events unfolding in the mirror.

"Tch, they actually pushed her to action. Humans."

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><p>The vicious mob closed in around the trembling little body of Naruto Uzumaki and grinned cruelly. The man who had tripped him up emerged from behind the dilapidated old building and grinned maliciously at the little boy.<p>

"So, what do we do to the little demon?" He asked the rest.

"I say we kill him. The memory of the fourth should not tarnished by the existence of such an abomination!" Another one shouted.

Someone in the back yawned before shouting out "Well whatever it is, we should hurry up, I'm tired and I don't want to miss such an opportunity."

"Now that you mention it, I'm kind of tired as well. Chasing him must have taken a lot out of me, damned brat!"

One by one the members of the mob began to yawn and then slump over one another as a deep slumber claimed them and tiny grains of sand rained down on them.

A spiral of sand appeared and a beautiful lady stepped out of it.

"Hey, who are you?" Naruto asked, his eyes also drooping.

"Shhh, don't worry about anything." With that she picked up the small slumbering body and disappeared into sand.

She lay down the small boy on his hard mattress and frowned. Sleeping on a bed like that was bad news for your back. She snapped her fingers and watched as he sunk a little deeper into the mattress.

"Much better."

She paced around the room a little, her mind buried in though. Then she stopped in front of him and sighed. The sound made at her intake of breath was very audible. She stretched out the middle and fore fingers on her right hand and as the tips began to glow a deep blue she placed them on the middle of his forehead.

She took a few steps backward and watched as the boy squirmed in his sleep. Then slowly, his eyes began to open and he let out a small yawn before sitting up. Blue eyes swept the room before they were fixed on the tall figure of a woman sitting in a chair.

"Uh, hello Naruto." The figure waved at him while flashing a lop sided grin.

"Hi and how do you know my name?" he asked a little uncertainly. He was generally suspicious of people who knew his name without being told.

"The name's Avatea, I'm the sand man or woman, because I have never ever been a man. But I don't mind the title."

The little boy nodded slowly, unsure of what to make of the strange woman.

"Okay. Why are you at my house Avatea- san?"

"I came to give you a gift." After saying this she nodded her head in a sagely manner. "The gift to access your subconscious at will."

Naruto looked at her. Saying he was confused would have been a large understatement.

"The power to use your mind to a greater degree than other humans."

Still no response.

"Tell me Naruto, you have been having rather bad nightmares right?" the boy nodded before looking down in a defeated manner, "Well, the gift I am awarding you with will give you the ability to avoid those."

"You're going to make the monsters go away?" he asked, eyes lighting up in desperate hope.

She smiled kindly at him as she replied "Not exactly. I am going to give you the ability to make the monsters go away."

"How?" his face squeezed in confusion.

"Tell me what you know of the brain."

"Well jiji says that the brain is in our heads and that it helps us to think and survive. But I'm not sure 'coz the big kids say I don't have a brain but I'm still alive so I must have a brain right nee- chan?"

The angel had to smile at the familiar term which the boy had already dubbed her with. "Of course you have a brain. Honestly, kids of nowadays need to learn how to apply logic and common sense to their insults." The very thought of that made her chuckle. Children were generally famous for defying and twisting logic. "You see Naruto, the brain is divided into many segments with many different functions to help you think and act. While humans have a vague idea of how the brain functions, they are still rather unsure of how it works. Explaining to you how the brain works would be a rather fruitless endeavour so I'm going to simplify this. You have your conscious and your subconscious. The conscious part of your brain works in a way that can be almost completely accounted for by humans. Your subconscious however… Tell me, have you ever disliked someone in an instant? Has someone ever been nice to you but for some reason you didn't like them."

Naruto nodded as he remembered an incident that had occurred a week earlier: a fat man had approached him with a smile which was meant to be kindly and had handed him a lollipop. Yes the smile the man had worn had seemed friendly but there was something off about the man that had caused Naruto to throw away the lollipop once he was out of the man's sight. Naruto reported this tale to the lady in front of him and she nodded.

"That lollipop was poisoned." She had to force herself not to wince at the boy's shocked expression. "The reason you threw away that lollipop was because some obscure part of your mind read the body signals being sent out by the man and warned you about. That part of your mind can be referred to as your subconscious. Your subconscious works on your deeply ingrained memories and your inborn instincts." She gave him some time to try and understand what she was trying to explain. When she saw he still didn't get it she shook her head. "Let's call it a mind within your mind and forget about it."

Naruto nodded happily very ready to comply.

"Now, your dreams are a set of images compiled by your subconscious. Sometimes these images are simply random but more often than not they reflect your fears, worries and desires in an entertaining way. Many people are unable to fully remember or comprehend these dreams and those that can more than often tend to misinterpret them. The ability I have given you tonight allows you to not only remember but also to manipulate your dreams. By giving you the ability to change and navigate your dreams I have made it so that you never have to be afraid of nightmares again." She gave a very triumphant smile after explaining that last bit, very conveniently forgetting that she was talking to a six year old who had only very recently reached that most esteemed age.

"So I won't have any more nightmares."

"Uh huh. Well after a bit of practice you won't." she nodded vigorously. "Of course there you get more privileges than all those humans who labour for years to get these ability and even still can't use it to its full potential." Naruto was now confused. "You see Naruto, I have given you the key to your subconscious. All those little things that you feel you are forgetting: those little instincts of danger or the feeling that something is off: you can now easily identify those things easily."

"Do you know, Naruto, that there are five different stages of sleep identified by the humans?"

The small boy shook his head- right now he was completely and utterly lost.

"Well, there are. These are, the first stage: is the beginning of the sleep cycle, and is a relatively light stage of sleep. Stage 1 can be considered a transition period between wakefulness and sleep. This period of sleep lasts only a brief time around 5-10 minutes. If you awaken someone during this stage, they might report that they weren't really asleep. Stage 2: is the second stage of sleep and lasts for approximately 20 minutes. Body temperature starts to decrease and heart rate begins to slow. Stage 3: is a transitional period between light sleep and a very deep sleep. Stage 4: is a deep sleep that lasts for approximately 30 minutes. Stage 5: Most dreaming occurs during the fifth stage of sleep, known as rapid eye movement sleep. REM sleep is characterized by eye movement, increased respiration rate and increased brain activity. REM sleep is also referred to as paradoxical sleep because while the brain and other body systems become more active muscles become more relaxed. Dreaming occurs due because of increased brain activity, but voluntary muscles become paralyzed. However, it is important to realize that sleep does not progress through these stages in sequence. Sleep begins in stage 1 and progresses into stages 2, 3 and 4then stage 3 and stage 2 are repeated before entering REM sleep. Once REM sleep is over, the body usually returns to stage 2. Sleep cycles through these stages approximately 4 or 5 times throughout the night. On average, humans enter the REM stage approximately 90 minutes after falling asleep. The first cycle of REM sleep might last only a short amount of time, but each cycle becomes longer, so REM sleep can last up to an hour as sleep progresses."

She looked up from her explanation and was happy to notice that Naruto seemed to be following her easy but complicated explanations of the stages of sleep.

"That is what humans have figured out and it is true excepting one. That one is you. Unlike other humans you can choose what stage of sleep you want to be in and you will have control of most of your muscle during REM sleep- your awareness is never dulled. You can also choose how long you want to remain in a certain stage. It is during the fifth stage of sleep that you enter your subconscious. The reason brain activity is more during this stage is because during that stage your brain is processing information, storing it away, doing a sort of physical on your body and mind, finding ways to present this information to you and trying to figure out solutions (via dreams of course.). That is why you sometimes wake up in the morning and feel like you know things.

Naruto silently nodded. He was six, not stupid and as she spoke his brain was struggling to simplify all that she said. It also helped that she was speaking slowly.

"Of course what humans don't know is that the fifth stage is also divided into several stages, each stage is a deeper part of your subconscious. Anything you learn in each of these stages you can remember. Your powers allow you to control what you think about in these particular stages. In other words, you can spend months in your subconscious trying to do your homework and when you wake up not only do you have a thorough understanding of it but you also find that only six hours have passed. You can also easily access memories of certain event that may have happened days or years back (some are easier to access than others) and replay them while you sleep. This will allow you to thoroughly analyse them. You can also practice your katas or strategies or targeting or anything really in your sleep. Then your brain stores away that information and can apply it when you do physical practice (instant cheat code). This power does not affect your physical stature so you still need to get a lot of practice while awake but this does make it a lot easier and faster to learn stuff."

The young blonds eyes had begun to shine at the possibilities of what he could do with the power.

"Next, let us talk about your déjà vu moments. Sometimes while humans sleep they see flashes of the future. These flashes happen while they are deep in stage five so many may not remember it till it actually happens and even then it seems like a distant memory, why this is, I am not allowed to explain to you; however now that you have these powers you will be able to understand and remember these dreams. In time you will be able to recognise when you have these dreams and you will clearly know when these events will take place. They won't happen often but they will happen. How you use this is clearly up to you… but" here she bent down and placed a hand on his head "please use this as best you can, without any malicious or evil intent. Okay?"

The small boy nodded eagerly to assure his new friend.

"That's my boy." Naruto smiled at the praise and Avatea smiled back.

"Another ability granted to you by this power is the ability to bring things to life. If you think about an object then you can cause it to come into creation."

She held out her arm and a small kunai appeared on it. "Just like that." She waved her hand and the object disappeared. "There are a few things you need to know about this aspect of your ability. The first is that you cannot create food with it."

Naruto opened his mouth to protest but she shook her head at him.

"Don't say anything. The second part is that anything you create takes a lot of focus and chakra so you can only create small things and only for a limited amount of time. The more you create a certain object, the easier and faster you can do it the next time. Also once an object leaves the range of your focus, it disappears and returns to you." She waited a while as this sunk in.

"Lastly, you should try your best to not create things with life when in a battle situation. Anything you create is something that you must first create in your dreamscape, to ensure that it does not run wild and absorb all your chakra. If you create anything with life, not only does it take more chakra than inanimate objects it also takes some of your life force. Creating living creatures weakens you, and at least part of the damage done to it is transmitted back to you. It will not be dispelled if it is released but will keep on fighting until it is dead then it returns to your dreamscape. If it is killed, you will be weakened and you will not be able to call it out until you have recuperated from the damages which its injuries transmitted to you."

She waited as the small boy tried to process all that he had been told. She could see from the expression on his face that he did not fully understand this but she understood that there were things he needed to experience before he would understand them.

"My last gift to you is this. A Tri- blade."

A gleaming sword appeared. It had a silver blade that gleamed wickedly in the light, and a transparent sapphire hilt that was wrought to look like tree branches with three precious stones in it- a ruby, a diamond and a black stone that he did not recognise.

"The Tri- blade has three functions and the three precious stones signify these functions. The diamond in the middle of the hilt signifies dreams: if you cut a person while focusing on the diamond, the blade will draw the person's sweetest memories and trap them in an illusion created from them. The ruby on top represents nightmares: then then blade will draw on the persons worst memories and allow your mind to work them into nightmares which you can trap them in. The third stone, obsidian, represents the black abyss: this world is out of your control- it is an eternal darkness meant to torment a person's mind. Each of these abilities takes a lot of focus and chakra and should be used sparingly."

Naruto nodded determinedly as she handed it to him before it disappeared in a blue flash of light.

"Naruto, these powers were given to you mostly so you could avoid nightmares. The extra abilities are bonuses so use them well. Your dreamscape is a world which you can now customise according to your desires. In there you are in charge. That can be a lot of fun so please have fun with it because that is what I want you to do with it, okay?"

He nodded and yawned. She smiled as she tucked him into bed. She retrieved a small bag of sand and sprinkled a few grains over his eyes. Once he was smuggled into his sheets she snapped her hands and a small frog appeared in Naruto's hands. She watched as the boy's grasp on the creature smiled and she smiled fondly at him. This was probably the last time she would get to interact with him like this.

"Child of the earth: with golden hair like the sun and blue eyes, endless and deep like the sky. With heart of pure gold and will of a mountain. You look forward to tomorrow, never knowing what it holds. You feel all alone in this world and they all shun you though from birth you were great. To me your smile speaks of pureness and a steadfast heart with a beautiful destiny. You are a beacon of hope in this dark world so please continue to shine brightly. With dreams so pure and future untold and hair bright yellow and heart of gold. Know that I love you, child of the earth. "

She smiled at him as she sang this song softly. It was a song she had often used to sing to him when he was young. It had been composed just for him and always put him to sleep. She bent down and kissed him once more before disappearing.

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><p>Elsa smiled at the picture presented by her boss. She frowned slightly as she remembered something.<p>

"Commander?" she said as soon as the lady returned to the world.

"Yes Elsa?"

"You didn't tell him about the Kyuubi."

Avatea frowned slightly. "I didn't feel I should tell him that just before he slept so whoever is assigned to teach him how to use his abilities will deal with that."

Elsa nodded as an 'Oh I get it expression' crossed her face. To prevent Naruto from making the same mistake made by others, Avatea would give him a personal dream- weaver to babysit him.

"Who is going to get the job?"

Suddenly a young looking female walked in whistling a merry tune. She had a small face with pixie like proportions; dark skin; sharp, big dark purple eyes; white hair in a pixie cut with a single red line of red hair running through it; a purple, short sleeved t- shirt; a pair of baggy black pants; a long white jacket with a hood and two purple lines running down each side; a sword with a golden hilt was strapped diagonally across her back; and like Avatea, she had no wings.

"Ah just who I was looking for." Avatea smiled as she threw an arm round the girls shoulder and led her out of the enclosure.

Elsa had to force herself not to laugh at the bewildered expression on the girls face.

The next morning, a small Naruto stirred in his bed. Something in the back of his mind told him that this was going to be a good day. He opened his eyes and a bleary form with dark skin and a pixie cut materialised in front of his eyes.

He shot up in alarm before noticing that the thing seemed to be a very miniature version of an adult. It- whatever it was- could probably sit very comfortably on his small shoulder.

The thing opened its mouth and began to speak, "Relax kid. My name is Leah and starting today I'm your baby sitter."

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><p><strong>Leah is in chibi form just so you know. I was just thinking what powers like this might do for Naruto. Note he will not be some kind of demi god. Powers like these have drawbacks and take time to properly develop. Not to mention the amount of mental control it takes too pull it off.<strong>

**A dream scape is basically a world that is created in your subconscious- how your subconscious perceives things. Like an alternate universe in your mind. Bad things can happen if you tamper too much with a dreamscape that is not yours but you can mess with yours if you know how to reach it. It is different from you mind scape  
><strong>

So do you want to see more? Like I said this is a test chapter so I need your opinions on whether or not I should continue. If you are interested then please let me know. Thank you.


	2. Journey to the mind

DISCLAIMER: I DO NOT OWN NAARUTO, THIS IS WRITTEN FOR FUN AND ENTERTAINMENT NOT PROFIT.

Hello! So here we are again. The response to the test chapter was enough for me so I put up this chapter. This story is now in its trial period and will remain there till chapter four or five. Let's see if I can keep you interested in the story that long.

To Dazza- 96: Yep, it does, doesn't it? I really liked the movie. And the theory behind my plot is messed up and a little confusing but I hope it becomes much clearer in time.

WARNING: NOTE THAT ANY AND ALL EXPLANATION GIVEN DURING THE STORY SHOULD NOT BE TAKEN TO BE FACTUAL. Also note the way I specifically explain about the chips with a great regard to colour if you don't get the whole colour thing then this chapter is lost. For the chips, they actually refer to small squares or computer chips- which ever you prefer.

I AM WALKING FROM THE POINT OF VIEW THAT NARUTO STARTED TWO YEARS AHEAD OF THE REST OF HIS CLASSMATES. THEY START AT SEVEN, HE STARTS AT FIVE. This means that he is currently the youngest in his class, a year above Neji and two years above the Rookie 9.

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><p>The morning was still dark and cold. A silver device was stood up on a table. It greatly resembled a medium sized digital picture frame with the difference being that instead of pictures there were months and dates displayed. The illuminated orange month was June, some eight months since Naruto Uzumaki had been visited by the sandman, Avatea, and been put under the tutelage of the dream- weaver, Leah.<p>

In eight months he had learned two of the three foundations of his power: Lucid dreaming and switching consciousness.

Lucid dreaming is normally a skill which takes time, patience and a good deal of mental focus. Luckily for Naruto Uzumaki time was not really a factor considering how long others took to learn it. He had mastered it in four months. One of the things done to learn lucid dreaming was to perform continuous reality checks. This meant Naruto had continuously keep an eye on his surroundings documenting the way things worked and the way people acted and his physical irregularities- this ranged from the way the weather worked or the clouds moved and the way the sky looked to the number of fingers or lines on his hands and his ability to breathe through a blocked nose. The second was to repeatedly remind himself of the fact that he was not at sleep. As such throughout the day he repeated the line 'I am awake. I am not asleep.' to himself, making sure that it did not just become an aimless exercise but something he was always aware of. Because of these two tasks anyone who had ever taken the time to watch Naruto noticed that the rambunctious little boy seemed to have become much quieter and absorbed. Another exercise he had performed in those months was the keeping of a dream journal. At first that doesn't sound like much but to Naruto it made quite the difference because he had to wake up at one hour intervals and immediately snap to alertness, the reason being that waking up at those times allowed him to remember whatever dreams he was having at that time so he could write them down and in a way also helped him to learn to quickly and immediately differentiate between the dream world and the real world.

The second stage was switching his consciousness. This involved him learning to easily switch between the various stages of sleep as well as further retreating into his consciousness than others could (deeper than the first stage of REM sleep).

Naruto had also had to learn other things. These involved memory building exercises- including his ability to perfectly remember, recreate and customise pictures and scenes he had seen either in real life or in movies and books he had been forced to read; physical exercises- to tire him out so he fell asleep quicker without need of prompting; and Home Economic lessons- including nutrition and sewing- because he had no idea how to survive on his own. The result was a quieter, more absorbed boy who was often seen either napping in the classroom during lunch (in an attempt to faster master his lessons) or studiously looking at one picture book or another.

The image on the screen suddenly changed to that of an alarm clock with the words 5:55am across it before a loud and annoying 'BEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEP' pierced the morning air.

A small hand reached out from under the coverlet and lifted it before pressing the small stop button located under the alarm clock. This device had been what Leah had gotten him as a late birthday gift- it was extremely useful for waking him up early or in the middle of the night and it was also virtually indestructible.

Naruto got up and rubbed his eyes tiredly before climbing out of bed and proceeding into the bathroom. Less than five minutes later he emerged dressed in a black jumpsuit with two blue stripes each running down the length of the arms and legs.

"Alright! My name is Naruto Uzumaki and I'm going to be hokage someday!" he proclaimed to no one.

With that he dashed out the door into the cold still air to begin his morning routine.

000000000000000000000 (time skip)

"Nonoka?"

"Present."

"Kohorin?"

…

"Kohorin?"

"He's not here."

The lady sighed aloud before moving to the next name on the register.

"Naruto?"

…

"Huh? Naruto."

…

"Will someone please wake up Naruto."

"He's not here either."

"Well that's strange." She murmured, if nothing else the quiet blond was always early to class even if he used those last minutes before the lesson to sleep. He was never absent. "Alright class today-"

The door to the room suddenly slammed open to reveal two boys. The older one had black hair and the younger had a mop of untidy blond hair and was wearing a black tracksuit with two orange lines each running down the length of the arms and legs.

"Kohorin, Naruto, you are both late, I assume you have a good reason." she said directing a calm and threatening stare at the two of them.

"Um. Sorry Kaya sensei." Naruto began, his eyes trained on the ground and his whole body oozing slight discomfort under her gaze. "I ran into a little… distraction this morning."

Kaya didn't fail to notice the small shudder he let out as he pronounced the word 'distraction'.

"Very well then Naruto, as long as you don't do it again."

"Thank you sensei." He said before quickly moving to his seat albeit a bit more slowly and deliberately than normal.

She should talk to him about that later. She then turned to the second offender who still stood in front of her. His eyes were down and his shoulders stiff in a pose that seemed to be an almost perfect imitation of Naruto's.

"Sorry Kaya sensei. Something happened on my way here so I was late."

Kaya had to hold in her groan. Honestly, how stupid did this eight year old think she was.

"Is that so?"

"Well then, you have detention this afternoon."

"What? Why? You just let Naruto go!"

"Well Kohorin, I did promise you that if you were late one more time you would get a detention."

"But-"

"Tell you what. IF you actually attempted your home work today I'll let you off."

The boy looked down and muttered under his breath but did nothing else.

"I'll take that as a 'I don't have it' gesture. Look here Kohorin-" she began with a sigh- she had given this lecture so many times that she could always customise it to meet her needs. "I have nothing against you but you really should try a little harder. The reason I am not punishing Uzumaki is because this is his first time coming late and he always hands in his assignments. Apart from your tardiness there is also your constant failure to complete any and all assignments given in class; your sleeping through, disrupting or just plain missing classes; and the fact that you put in way too little effort and expect your father's money to make you a ninja. Your obnoxious cockiness when addressing your teachers and betters is also starting to get on my nerves. If you want to make an apology next time, then please try to make it sincere or less of a mockery at least. Copying someone else's pose won't be enough to get you off punishment. Now quickly move to your sit so that I can finish the registration."

Kaya Kitahama, female in her early twenties. Petite but tough. She is a brutally honest person who is very involved in her hobby: psychology. She is a no nonsense person with mid- chuunin level skills and a gift for spotting lies by looking at a person or even just analysing their tone. She does not really like field work and prefers her job as a teacher. Her love for little children, fairness and calm- sometimes bordering on cold- demeanour make her perfect for her position. Unfortunately her fairness and judgement can be clouded by certain circumstances, like the death of a very loved and admired older sister during the attack of a certain tailed beast. She knew it was illogical to keep up such a grudge against a young child who more than anyone else had a right to be cleared of all blame but she found it hard not to. Of course unlike some of the teachers who right out discriminated against the boy she actually did her job; but no more than her job. Considering he was the youngest in the class and an orphan who lived all on his own, she ought to help him a little more right? But she never did that. His constant prank pulling also added to her dislike for him and his refusal to turn in his assignments did not sit well with her. He was only five but still… If he could not cope with it then the hokage should pull him out. That had been her view during his first year here. When he had returned in the second year she had been worried. He had become an almost overly quiet kid who spent all his free time sleeping and never played any more pranks or laughed during her classes. Sure he had begun to hand in his homework more regularly but many times he had come in looking tired and he still stayed awake during lectures. Her worry was now accompanied by guilt: he always handed in neat scripts of assignments which even the older students found difficult to deal with. Today she decided to talk to him. His slight discomfort when he reported for class this morning was not lost on her and now that it was time for lunch she was going to ensure that he was okay.

"Hello Naruto."

"Ah. Good morning sensei." He greeted with a cheerful smile as he turned his attention from his picture book to her.

It was so adorable that she had to smile back.

"I can see that you are enjoying your book very much."

"Mhm."

"May I see?"

He handed her the book. Kaya went through the entire thing. It was a book filled with pictures of flowers.

"I see. You like flowers."

"Uh huh. A lot."

"…And… Why is that?"

"Huh?"

"Why do you like flowers?"

"I dunno, I just like them. I guess I don't have a reason."

"Yes you do." At his puzzled look she continued "Everyone has a reason for doing something- some better than others but all still existing. When someone does a kind deed they often say 'do I need a reason to help others?' of course they don't need one but they still have one. They helped the other person because they felt that the person needed it and they felt it was the right thing to do. They may not dwell on it at the moment but in all fairness it really is a reason. Do you understand?"

Naruto looked contemplative for a few seconds before he finally replied, "Ya, I s'pose. Then I guess the reason I like flowers is because they are pretty and cheerful. They always make me feel better when I look at their bright colours so I always want to make sure that they remain bright. They also smell real nice and I feel happy when I'm around them." With the last line he turned up his face and smiled at her brightly.

"I like the flowers bright colours as well." She said as she chucked. His answer was so naively simple it would have put an overly paranoid person on guard but something in the way he smiled at her made her relax completely. "So Naruto, what was that little distraction you ran into earlier this morning that made you late?"

The small boy shivered as the picture of thick eyebrows and an overly loud man in a… disturbing green spandex suit assaulted his memory.

"I ran into a man during my morning run and I was delayed in getting back home."

Kaya was immediately on her guard. "What kind of man? What did he look like?" If there was some creep going around harassing little boys then she wanted to know who it was.

"Well he wore a green spandex suit, and had these really bushy eyebrows." Here he waved his hands about for emphasis, "Plus he said things like 'POWER OF YOUTH!' and made funny poses."

Ah. She sighed to herself. It was Gai that had delayed Naruto. Now that he mentioned it, he said he was out exercising. For someone like Gai, finding someone as young as Naruto being so enthusiastic about his future is the kind of thing that would set him off on one of his rants. She just hoped Naruto was alright and not scarred for life, Gai was a good man but sometimes he was just….

"Hey Naruto, what did you think of the man?"

"He was really nice but weird." The small boy nodded his head. How had Gai left that impression on the young boy? Quite simply He had gotten into a discussion with Naruto and at the end of it all had given Naruto a free set of training weights and a lot of loud advice. For someone who hardly ever received any kindness from the villagers that was enough. However, that spandex suit was something that he could not easily overlook.

"Is that so than? Well, then that is okay. Are you hurt or anything?"

"No."

"That's good."

With that she made a move to live the room. As she reached the door she turned around to face him "They are having a flower exhibition in the Sakura centre this weekend and I've got tickets. Would you like to come?"

"Yes, thank you Kaya sensei!" he replied with shining eyes.

She smiled at him. He seemed like a nice kid so maybe she could help him out a little more.

* * *

><p>"Hey kiddo." Leah greeted, popping in in her full form not what she called her 'energy saving' form- a miniature adult. Not a small adult but a miniature adult.<p>

Leah was Naruto's dream- weaver tutor. She spent a lot of time with him trying to teach him any and everything pertaining to his daily life, especially the mastery of his new ability. She was a fun loving female who was both very patient and impatient at the same time. Not to mention that her ability to tell stories was amazing. She normally appeared in her 'energy saving' form when in the real world and in her full form when in the dream world.

"Hello. Um, where are we?" Naruto asked as he looked around. This was actually his first time entering his subconscious mind and he was fairly sure he had gotten it right.

The place was white with different sizes of transparent chips and boxes: deep blue, white and a few deep red and dark green. Plus some solid green, solid blue and solid red chips were also floating around. Naruto and Leah stood on a set of transparent square blue boxes that were arranged to make a small patch of solid ground. All around them- up down and sideways- were different boxes arranged in the same manner except that some of them were red, dark green, deep blue or white or a mixture of two different colours and some were solid. These different patches of ground were separated. Though the place was not crowded or full or empty, it just was. There were also miniature Narutos handling boxes or chips. In the distance Naruto could faintly see what looked like a tree house and around him, at different grounds, he could spot some metallic doors.

"We're in our subconscious." Someone who looked exactly like Naruto, not a miniature, save for his attire of a white short sleeved shirt worn with black pants and a long sleeveless black jacket, holding a clip board- Naruto wore a set of ramen pyjamas.

"Eh?" Naruto looked at the new comer with a great deal of interest; it was just like looking in a mirror. This had never happened before.

"I am you. Just so we are clear about that. Well they are all you if you know what I mean." His other self said as he gestured too all the miniature Narutos around. The all looked up and grinned, giving a v sign before returning to their work. "Just so there are no confusions you may call me NS1."

"Okay? So what is all this, this place looks pretty empty." Naruto said.

"And boring?" NS1 asked.

"Well not really."

"Let me give you a basic rundown of this place. These-" he said as he said as he touched one of the chips "are what you call memory chips. There are some copies of these in your conscious mindscape but most of them are down here. Those who seem to be able to access more of these chips than others in their conscious mind are what people call geniuses. These chips hold everything you have ever learned- from moving to sleeping to dancing to schoolwork."

"The solid green chips are a set of new memories that have just arrived, things that you are learning for the very first time. These are captured by the minis and processed before sorting. Some green chips are harder to process than others but yeah. The red chips are the most basic and important memories. They contain things like how to walk, talk, eat, move, the movement of the chakra in your chakra paths and all your survival instincts. The solid red chips are solidified fundamentals that are absolutely needed and are perfectly understood while the transparent red chips are the ones that are harder to access. Sometimes if you do something enough times it turns into a solidified red chip. Remember when that merchant from long ago gave us a lollipop?"

"Not really." Naruto replied.

NS1 shook his head before waving his hand in a funny manner. A transparent white chip appeared in his hand. He placed it in front of Naruto and then it grew till it was body length before a few figures appeared in it and begun to move- like a movie. They could see from first person point of view as a small hand reached out to collect a beautifully wrapped lollipop from a smiling fat man. The person then began to move then once out of sight of the old man the lollipop was unwrapped and flung into a bin.

"Oh, I remember!" Naruto said.

NS1 nodded and then the chip returned to its normal size but this time they were now two and both were blue not white. Naruto wanted to ask about it but refrained from doing that.

"Do you know why you threw away the lollipop?" Naruto shook his head "That smile was matched against a transparent red memory chip. An instinct. Because you cannot fully access a transparent red chip, you are unable to fully understand why that smile triggered such a reaction. These red chips can be partly solidified by study and observation when conscious; but when in this part of your mind they can be more easily accessed and analysed, allowing you to fully solidify them, if you wish."

Naruto nodded again as NS1 stopped for breath.

"The transparent deep blue chips are the most numerous of chips, fully processed and ready for action. Everything you learn is stored as a deep blue chip. When you study for exams or read a book. Most deep blue chips are easy to access but they fade away quickly. Then the white chips are faded chips; they are the hardest to access even while you are here; memories that are forgotten. If a deep blue memory chip is left alone long enough then it becomes lighter until it eventually turns into a white chip. The lighter a chip, the harder it is to access. From your conscious you can get only fragments of a white chip, luckily for you, from here you can get the whole memory. Green chips are unable to fade till they have been categorised either under blue or red. Solidified red chips never fade unless something goes wrong, like an accident, even then they may only fade slightly. Transparent red chips never ever fade. You follow?"

"Yup." Naruto replied. "The green chips are brand new memories so I cannot lose those until they have been sorted. The blue chips are normal memories so I can lose them, like that memory of the old man or something I was taught in class can be forgotten. The solidified red chips are things like walking and talking and are basic functions which will be difficult to lose under normal circumstances. The light red chips are inborn instincts which I never learned so I will never lose."

NS1 smiled at Naruto, he was so proud.

"Next up is memory cloning. You noticed that after viewing that white chip with the old man it turned blue again and then doubled." NS1 said.

"Yes." Naruto nodded.

"When you study something over and over again, the colour of the chip is renewed again and again, the more times it is renewed, the slower it fades. Eventually if you study that particular subject enough times, it may turn into either a solid red chip or a transparent green chip. The latter are the easiest types of chips to access and they fade really, really slowly. The deeper the green, the slower they fade. Your deepest ingrained memories are the greens, the things you will never forget."

"Now then, moving on. The reason that blue chip doubled was because you viewed it in your subconscious. When you do that then you almost always create another memory chip which is exactly. Sometimes that does not happen and sometimes it does; sometimes it takes a longer time to happen and sometimes it takes a shorter amount of time, it depends on a lot of factors which include the sizes of the chips and stuff like that. The more memory chips you have of a particular topic, then the easier it is to remember that topic. But no matter what happens when you view a memory chip while here, the colour is always renewed so studying down here is much better than studying in your conscious mind."

"Not to mention the ultimate cheat code." Leah spoke for the second time since they arrived here. "What he did with that chip about that old man. You remember right Naruto?"

Naruto nodded as he and NS1 directed their full attention to the girl.

"Well you can do that with almost any chip. You can listen to a lecture over and over again if you to. Or after you finish practising your work, you can view it while here in your mind. You can slow it down or speed it up to fully analyse it in any way you wish. Or you could use the memory recount ability. Right NS1?"

"I was coming to that." NS1 said as he smiled.

"What?" Naruto was confused.

"Memory Recount Ability- MRA: The act of re- living through a particular memory. We could have done two things with the memory of earlier: one, we could view the events like we did; two, you could have re- lived the events, participated in them, not just watch them happen. This is actually best if you are trying to get hold of a certain emotion or if you are trying to build muscle memory. Right now in class you are learning the transformation technique, right?" NS1 said.

"Yes." Naruto nodded

"Now watch." NS1 waved his hand again and a blue memory chip appeared in it. "Put your hand on this and empty your mind of all thoughts."

Naruto did as instructed then suddenly he found himself back at the school training ground going through the hand signs needed for the transformation jutsu. Once he had done that he disappeared and reappeared back with NS1 and Leah.

"You feel any different?" Leah asked.

"Not really." Naruto replied.

"That is the MRA." NS1 said, he held the two blue chips in their hand and then merged them together. "If you do that every once in a while then you will start to notice differences, like how the memory chip will merge into one then eventually turn green, as that happens you perform the hand signs for that jutsu over and over again. Those green memory chips will then quickly merge to form red memory chips and at that point you will find that you don't need hand signs to focus your chakra. Things like that. You will be able to learn things like that much quicker."

Naruto simply nodded, he still felt weird after re- living that memory.

"Of course you might need to learn how to stay in that memory longer or how to enter the memories, note that some memories are easier to enter than others."

"Okay."

"I think I've covered almost everything about memory chips." NS1 put his hand on his chin and assumed a thinking pose. "The only two chips left are the black ones and the solid blue ones. The black ones are deleted memories. Those memories that have been completely erased from your mind, I thought that it was impossible but it's not apparently. Only the person who deleted the memory can bring it back, we've tried all we could. One of the deleted memories is the memories of our parents. We know because we tried to retrieve it but to no avail. You could try again once you have mastered this aspect of the ability but somehow I don't think it's possible…. I have absolutely no idea what the other deleted memories are."

"Do you know anyone who could have done it?" Naruto asked, almost in despair.

"No, sorry, but no matter how you look at it I'm you, so if you don't have any candidates to that then neither do I. Whoever did it though was extra ordinary because it is almost impossible to delete a memory. You can make it fade but not delete it."

Leah watched as the two boys stood there, one trying to comfort the other. Avatea had been right. To delete a memory, she had never yet seen a human who could do it, they could cause the memory to fade but not delete it. That was why humans may be able to see flashes of the past even after their memories were 'deleted'. Naruto may learn how to eventually, because of his ability, but that was highly unlikely, it was more probable that he would learn how to put up really tough mind barriers or how to regain a deleted memory but that was it. Even then, because those memories had been blocked by Avatea herself, he would never be able to regain them on his own.

"Leah, you look really worried, is everything okay?" NS1 asked.

This snapped her out of her trance and she smiled down at them. "Yeah, don't worry about it."

"Okay." NS1 said before continuing. "I don't know anything about the solid blue chips. They appeared around the time Leah did. Do you know what they do?" he turned to the silent weaver.

She nodded before she began to speak, "The solid blue chips represent solid memories. Anything stored in those chips can be brought to the real world with enough concentration and chakra. For instance if you were to bring a kunai into this plain of thought, then you were to store that kunai in one of these chips, then it would be easier and safer for you to make it appear in the real world."

"Really? Does that mean that if the image is not stored on one of the chip then it can't be made?" Naruto asked. He remembered someone mentioning that he would be able to do that but he was not sure where or when.

"No, it just means that working out all the details here and storing them on that chip before you bring them out is not only safer but it's also quicker. But we have quite a way to go before I can even begin discussing that with you so don't worry about it."

"Okay. So NS1, what are all these doors?" Naruto asked, staring at one of the metallic doors close by.

"These are special memories and portals to different parts of your subconscious. You will learn about them in time, don't worry about it."

"What of that tree house?" Naruto pointed at the tree house from earlier which was surrounded by memory chips.

"That's the processing centre of your mind. If you are trying to figure out how two things connect then that is where the information is processed. That is also the part of your mind that receives information about your body and how it is functioning and then it processes memories according to how important they seem. You know the routine."

"Does my whole subconscious look like this?"

"Nope. This part does but you can change the way other parts look. You can change the way the tree house looks, make it look like a hut or a cave. You can change how your memory chips look. You can even change the way the minis and I look. It all depends on you."

"If I want to train in here, can I?"

"Yup. All you have to do is choose your landscape."

"I don't know how to do that." Naruto pouted.

"Just concentrate Naruto. Just like when you want to change what you are dreaming about, just envision it." Leah said in a soft voice that slowly faded away.

Naruto closed his eyes as he tried to think of a place. He had read countless picture books because Leah had said that it would help him when changing his dreamscape. As he tried to think up the surrounding one picture kept coming to mind: his day at the Sakura Centre with Kaya- sensei.

There had been several international merchants who had come. Not only had there been several flower arrangements on display, there had been several things on sale: flowers; potted plants; seeds; soil; manure; posters; pastries and snacks and munchies; books about gardening and histories of plants and even on recipes; gardening tools; mini classes in which the owners of the stalls had talked about flowers, gardening, climates, pests and even poultry: and even small stalls where you could just sit and try to draw the flowers on display or from your memory or imagination. Naruto had won a small potted plant for his drawing of a particular bouquet on display. To Naruto it was a wonderful day. He had laughed and smiled and been happy. He had gotten to do something he wanted without feeling completely left out and the shop owners had been really nice. Kaya- sensei had paid for a lot of the mini classes which they attended together; she had even bought him snacks and the like. Naruto had come away from the exhibition with a lot of things, fruit, flowers and vegetables he could grow in his home; ways he could get rid of pests and well just about a bit of everything they had on sale- recipe books included. He could actually afford that much because of the fact that he hated shopping in Konoha and so he saved a lot. He had also gotten strawberries, these fruit were rare and extremely expensive in Konoha but he liked them so he had bought seeds which he could grow at home. Another item he had gotten from that place was a poster which he had really liked. It showed the sky at sunset, beautifully golden and partly obscured by silver lined clouds so that the light from heaven fell like stage lights on certain parts of the fields. In that field, carpeted with lush green grass and dotted with red polka dotted mushrooms, there were several fruit trees at different intervals and in the middle of it all was a strawberry tree with extremely large strawberries.

The chips under the feet of the three began to swirl round them forming and reforming into several shapes before it finally formed the picture in Naruto's head. The small boy opened his eyes to the sound of wind and a small waterfall that was nearby. He smiled as he surveyed his handy work and breathed in the air. Creating such a place was something that he could thanks to a little more than eight months of practice and he was happy as he immediately made a beeline for the only strawberry tree in the field with NS1 at his heels.

Leah smiled at them or him; that was confusing. The theory for this stage was also confusing but in practice it was really simple. She was glad. This was the third foundation of his ability. Once he had gotten down the basics of this stage she could begin to teach him other things. She looked around at the landscape he had chosen. Step one complete, time to proceed.

* * *

><p><span>Extra: Naruto meets the Kyuubi (because in the end I couldn't put this anywhere in this chapter)<span>

Naruto opened his eyes and was shocked, he was two months and a few weeks into his training to learn down the second fundamental level of his ability: switching consciousness. So far he had been able to reach the first three levels of sleep as he wished but he was having trouble switching to the fourth at his will and it was really annoying. If he couldn't reach the fourth then he wouldn't be able to reach the fifth and that meant he would not be able to reach the third level of his training.

He was a very lost right now, where was he? Was this the fourth level? It could be, he would have believed it if it was anywhere but this extremely ominous sewer. Where was Leah?

His train of thoughts was caught off by the sound of growling.

"Who's there? What do you want?" If this was a dream then somehow it was more scary than most of his other nightmares.

The noise continued, making him feel worse every time he heard it. So he moved. It was better to find out what was there than to wait for whatever it was to approach him (well he thought so anyway).

He followed the winding pipes in the tunnel wall, slowly moving and as he moved the presence became stronger. He knew he was moving in the right direction but for some reason that thought was not comforting.

Finally he reached a space larger than the narrow tunnels and in front of him was the largest cage he had ever seen. It was probably the largest cage in existence. Across the lock there was a small strip of paper with the word seal across it.

Suddenly two eyes opened then fangs and in the next moment the small boy was paralysed with a larger amount of killing intent than all the killing intent he had ever felt' combined. He was paralysed, dropping to his knees in sheer agony as he looked at the cage with wide terror filled eyes.

The mouth of whatever it was widened in a vicious grin and a large paw shot out intent on crushing him to a pulp but he couldn't move. Suddenly he was enveloped in warm arms and carried out of dangers way.

"What do you think you are doing?" the voice demanded but Naruto knew it was not talking to him. Never the less he recognised the voice, so familiar and soothing to his ears. Leah had arrived.

"Smashing the mortal to a pulp obviously you pesky weaver."

"Watch your tone Kyuubi. You have no right to smash the child not while he is unprotected and much less when he is under my protection."

Kyuubi! As in the monster that had smashed through Konoha six years ago. That thing was in his mind- yes it was definitely his mind that much he knew. But what was that doing here.

"I will smash him whenever I want to." The voice held a tint of anger in it but the rest was well supressed.

"That you missed this chance means that you will never get another. Next time he comes here you know that your trying to overwhelm him with your malice won't work, he will be too used to it to be become helpless. Whatever you troublesome fur ball I'm out."

"Come back here you pesky weaver and I will destroy you."

"You really think you could face me in an all-out match." Her voice was mocking and cold "You better watch your mouth brat, you lack both the power and the experience to even think about beating me. You're lucky that the laws forbid me from doing anything because I would honestly like to get rid of such an annoying trouble maker." With that she disappeared holding Naruto tightly in her arms; while the fox was left to sulk in the darkness.

Leah sighed as she and Naruto returned to consciousness. The small blond boy looked at her with wide eyes filled to the brim with unshed tears and she winced. This night was going to be a long night. She just hoped that Naruto would come out of it okay.

* * *

><p>Hi! This chapter took me forever and a half and it still did not come out the way I wanted. How was it? Confusing? I hope not. If you want an idea as to how the landscape Naruto chose looks then you should check out my profile picture. Yes I know strawberries do not grow on trees but did you know that they could be grown indoors in terracotta pots?<p> 


	3. The Days Go By

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto.

To Dumbledore: Than you for the review and the advice, much appreciated.

I hope you all like the chapter.

* * *

><p>A small hand reached out from a small bundle and put turned off the silver alarm device before he untangled himself from the pose and lay on his back for a few seconds. He had been performing these exercises for ten months under Leah's tutelage and every time he thought they would get easier, he would be proven wrong.<p>

The exercises, he had been told, were to increase his agility as well as his flexibility.

"You're a lot smaller than your mates and it is expected that you will have less brute strength. Of course as you grow you will become stronger but for now your size should allow you to be able to easily manoeuvre around your mates as well as give you an advantage when it comes to speed."

That was what Leah had told him when they had started doing this.

"If you delay any more then you might be late."

Naruto slowly opened his eyes and looked into the calm purple eyes of the white haired chibi that stood over him.

"If I am late then I shall do twenty extra laps around Konoha!"

With that he sprang up, slung the handle small bag that was resting on a chair close by over his shoulder and ran out the door to meet his 'running buddy' as he was called by Naruto.

"That boy has been hanging around Gai way too much." With that she also disappeared in a, to reappear only seconds later in the small training ground where her charge was due.

Leah watched as Naruto came upon the field where she was sitting and he pouted causing her to laugh.

A moment later a green blur appeared and once it settled down you could make out the spandex clad form of the jounin, Maito Gai, Konoha's foremost expert on taijutsu and Naruto's 'running buddy'.

Ever since they had met two months previous and the eccentric man had gained Naruto's trust by giving him a set of training weights, they had met very often and soon it had become Naruto's habit to meet the man early in the morning for some exercises and an early run. Naruto got up as early as 5:00am every morning, performed Leah's stretching exercises and then an hour and a half later was out to meet Gai. At first the exercises had been done in the afternoon after the Academy was over, they helped Naruto to relax but as of recent, he now performed them in the morning as well as in the afternoon.

"Alright Naruto, because you are now on a most youthful break, the exercises to fan your flames of youth shall be increased by two hours!"

Geez, couldn't the man keep it down. Despite the fact that the three of them were out at this time, it was only 6:00am.

That was right, Leah thought. It was the holidays. She sighed as she watched Naruto and Gai do push- ups as fast as they could. Despite the fact that Naruto had changed his weights recently, he was still doing pretty well, though this was only the beginning. Because Naruto now had a greater portion of his day to himself, his training schedule would have to change.

His schedule as of late, dictated that he get up at 5:00am, stretch with Leah till 5:50am, exercise then run with Gai till 7:00am, attend the academy from 8:00 till 3:30pm, perform target practice or skipping till 4:15pm, break, then stretch exercises from 4:30 till 5:00pm, homework till 6:00pm, dinner till 6:30pm, study or homework till 7:00pm, get ready for bed( take a bath, brush teeth etc.) till 7:20pm, playtime till 7:45pm(no matter what anyone says, children need time to be children, regardless of how little the time), cool out time till 7:55, then light outs till 5:00am the next morning. Well considering the small distractions that could not fit in, such as the change of venue and others, this was how his schedule should look.

His schedule was really tight which was why Naruto had his weekends to himself once lunch was over (Fridays not included).

Two things had changed though which would cause all this to change. The first was that Naruto had mastered using his subconscious to a level that was acceptable enough so that he could now use some of the time in there to study and the rest to practice using his mind. The second event was that it was now holidays meaning he had at least seven and a half extra hours to burn and no homework.

It was for this reason that Leah had kept him in for an extra hour and Gai was going to keep him running and performing all other sort of exercises till 9:30 when Naruto would inevitably have to leave to get some breakfast.

"That's it Naruto, let your flames of youth explode!" the taijutsu specialist declared as he performed another one armed push- up.

She watched as Naruto pushed himself up in what would be his hundredth and eight push up.

Might as well help, she thought with a shrug and with that she walked over to Naruto and sat down on his back.

Naruto watched as Leah got up from her place on the log and came to sit on his back. He would have shaken his head at her but he really couldn't with the sudden addition of weight. She always did this during his morning sessions with Gai, every time she seemed heavier than the last. Naruto had been puzzled when she had taken her normal place and he wondered what she was thinking.

Ah well. He thought as he continued to concentrate on his morning routine.

* * *

><p>Naruto flopped back onto the grass after Gai had left the field.<p>

"Come on lazy bones, move your butt, it's time to get breakfast." Leah said as she nudged his side with her feet.

Naruto groaned and rolled over. Even though he never actually sparred with the man, the exercises he was put through always made his muscles feel sore for some minutes after it was over. There were sit ups, push ups, jumping jacks, splits of all types and then the running. The running was always the worst. Naruto's stamina was tested as he was pushed to his limits, then beyond, then even further past his limits- he was pushed past his limit's limit.

He felt a small pressure on his back and looked up to see Leah, at his size, giving him a massage. He lay there for the next few minutes as her fingers worked their magic, eventually ending with a foot rub.

"Thank you Leah, you have got to teach me how to do that sometime." He said as he sat up.

"Okay."

"Now to Ichiraku's for a well-deserved breakfast!" he said springing to his feet energetically.

"Na-"

But he cut her off "Please," he begged, making his eyes as big as he could. "It is the first day of the holidays after all, so can't we celebrate it. Please, I entreat of you."

The now shrunk weaver looked at the figure in front of her and shook her head at him.

"Fine-"

"Yes!"

"But no more than two bowls and you must have a side dish of salads for each plate."

"Okay! No problem!"

He gave her a nice guy pose and she saw his teeth sparkle in the sunlight.

She stared wide eyed at him for a second before climbing to his shoulder and taking a seat there. It looked like Gai was having more of an effect on him than she originally thought.

* * *

><p>Teuchi Ichiraku was currently working at the ramen stand with his young daughter Ayame. This morning was a little slow. Business hardly ever picked up before noon and now as he stood there his mind wondered to the boy who was by far his favourite customer: Naruto Uzumaki.<p>

The boy had become scarcer these days. Teuchi noticed that he only ever came to the shop three times a week, never came in the mornings- even on weekends, never bought more than four bowls at a sitting and always bought one salad dish. Teuchi felt that the boy might be trying to improve his diet. He had also noticed that the boy looked more robust and less tired than previously. He wondered if it had anything to do with the fact that the boy had stopped pulling pranks.

Teuchi knew about the pranks because the boy had often come here after he pulled an all nighter in an attempt to pull a prank either early in the morning or late at night. To be honest he had worried about the boy: the bags under his eyes which should not have been there, the haunted look he sometimes wore or the faraway look he had in his eyes as he watched the rapidly cooling ramen broth in his bowl.

"Hey ya Teuchi ojii- san, Ayame nee- san!"

A loud and very familiar voice called out.

"Naruto, what are you doing here?" The voice of his daughter asked with surprise evident in her tone.

"What? I always come here right?"

Teuchi looked back and noticed that Naruto tilted his head to the side like a little bird and he had to smile at the cute expression.

"That's not what I mean Naruto. You never come here in the morning anymore."

"Oh that. Today is the first days of the holiday, so I came to celebrate with some ramen,"

"Oh? Then will you have your usual?"

"Nah, just two pork ramen and two salad dishes should be fine."

"'kay."

Once the dish was set in front of Naruto he began to eat at a fast yet controlled pace. Not a single drop of broth reached the table and this made Teuchi smile. Naruto had also learned some table manners and that never failed to amuse him and make him feel nostalgic. All the changes in Naruto could be chalked up to one thing: Naruto was growing up.

* * *

><p>"Again!"<p>

The sound of running. The sound of something scraping against tree bark. The sound of falling- thud.

"Again!"

The same sequence.

This took place over and over again. Sometimes with more success than others; though a definite pattern had begun to form. At least he seemed to be improving.

They could have used MRA for this. Let Naruto freeze himself at that time in his memory when he got just the right amount of chakra to his feet. He could then analyse the amount of chakra and use that in this situation. Unfortunately, while Naruto was coming along well in retrieval of memory, he still was not at the level where he could use MRA well enough even in rather simple situations.

Naruto lay on his back panting. He had being doing this for some time now without too much success. This chakra control exercise.

Normally, this exercise, as he was told, was something that was taught by a jounin sensei but Naruto needed it so he had gotten Kaya- sensei to teach him soon after the flower exhibition. She had agreed because, she knew without it he would never be able to fully master the three academy jutsu.

They had been taught the three basic academy jutsu at the beginning of the second year, with a little luck and a lot of practice, Naruto had managed to get down the henge jutsu but nothing else. He had done a bit of research, finally he and Leah had come to the conclusion that he had way too much chakra thanks to his rabid pet.

A little more research had given him the answer to his problem: chakra control exercises. He had acted immediately and gone to the only sensei which was not hostile towards him. Kaya had been more than willing to help, she had given him a simple exercise that involved him sticking leaves on his body. He had practiced that and about two weeks before they had closed he was done learning it. Soon after that he was able to perform the Kawarimi but not the bushin. Kaya seemed to have predicted that and she taught him the basic of the tree climbing exercise with the promise of her help if he ever needed it. Since then he had been working on the exercise.

"Alright, it's time for lunch so we'll try again later tomorrow."

"Yes," He nodded at her and he put down his hand so that she could climb up it and to his shoulder."

"So what's next sensei?"

Leah smiled at the title. She just loved being a teacher.

"Well, I think we are going to eat first, and then you have to study history and a bit of finance,"

Naruto knew that by that she meant all the wars that had been fought. From there he could pick up various strategies and tips. He hated finance; it sucked just to put it simply. The figures always made his head hurt even though Leah assured him it was only the simplest stuff which she taught him. When she called finance was half an hour of reading financial reports in Konoha and learning about stock markets and banks and investments. He absolutely hated it and yet he had to do it every day. It was a useless waste of money which could be spent on ramen. He withheld his groan.

"After that we can have a little target practice, then a game of chess or shogi, whichever you prefer."

This time he did groan. During the school term he only ever played that game with Leah and he always got soundly defeated in a quarter of an hour, he then had to listen to her lecture him about what he did wrong and fully explain her strategy to him. Forget the fact that she was millennia older than him, he still disliked it.

"Then after I beat you-"

Naruto growled a little and she smirked at him.

"We can camp out for the night, learn a little about astronomy and nature, and maybe play a little blind man's bluff." She finished off and Naruto smiled happily.

This was one of his favourite lessons and he was always allowed to stay up an hour later than normal.

He and Leah would go to a small secluded spot only two of them knew about. They would first lie on the grass and just relax before setting out their sleeping things (Leah made herself look like a girl his age) then they would stare into the sky and Leah would point out the constellations or teach him how to navigate using the sky or teach him a song or a story or tell him about plants and hunting and animals and natural poisons. They would talk and laugh. Sometimes they would play tag keeping Naruto blind folded all the while as he tried to locate or avoid Leah- he knew that it helped sharpen his other senses and teach him stealth. After wards they would eat smores before they would retire and he and Leah would hum till he fell asleep. It was fun.

"Hey Leah,"

"Yeah?"

"You should tell stories this evening."

"We'll see…"

* * *

><p>The overhead stars blinked in the night sky. The moon cast a silvery light on two figures sitting atop sleeping bags; one figure speaking and the other listening with rapt attention.<p>

"The dog approached the creature, absolutely sure that it could beat the creature despite the fact that the creature was bigger than it was. It snuck up behind the creature slowly, its mouth opened in a snarl. Just as it was about to pounce, the creature turned to face it and the hound was struck with fear. Not only was this creature several sizes larger than it was, it also had bigger and sharper teeth, stronger looking jaws, sharper claws and an obviously better build. Immediately it turned and fled from the majestic looking creature with the mane." The feminine voice said.

"What a coward. He should have at least stayed to fight if he thought he was strong." The boy said.

"Now what do you think this lesson with the fox and the hound is about?"

"Never be arrogant." The male voice responded.

"Why?" she prodded?

"Because if you are then you are going to underestimate your opponent and then you may lose."

"Anything else?"

"Try to find out as much about your enemy as you can before you attack. That way you at least have an idea of what you are up against before you attack."

"Good Naruto. Those are lessons that you do not apply only on the battle grounds but also in your everyday lives. Don't ever get ahead of yourself. No matter how good you are there is always someone out there better than you, let that thought keep you grounded. When you interact with people always keep your head clear and try to make a fair judgement without letting your ego get in the way. When something is the truth, it is the truth but never dismiss someone because you have a superiority complex."

Naruto nodded his head, eyes fixed on her as she continued to speak.

"At the same time do not ever develop an inferiority complex. Always give yourself the credit you deserve and never depreciate yourself. There are people, people who are fine warriors and are blessed with wonderful talents but because they are too busy looking down on themselves they can never fully use it. There is a limit to how 'humble' you can be. I want you to remember that you are one of a kind, so instead on focusing on what you bad traits and comparing yourself to others, focus on your good traits and how you can use them to your advantage."

"'kay Leah. But if I never focus on my faults then how am I ever going to get rid them?"

"That's not what I meant." She said shaking her head.

"No?"

"No. What I mean is that you shouldn't let them get you down- make you sad. When you can't do something as well as others that does not make you worthless. That does not mean that you should ignore them, it just means that you should not let them ruin your life. Understand?"

"Yeah, I guess."

"Good. And that completes Aesop tales 101 for today."

"This Aesop guy, what was he like? Do you know? He must have been a great guy right?"

"To some extent, he was. But he was still rather ordinary: ate breakfast, slept, was lazy: that kind of thing. On occasion he was rather foolish and in a way that led to his death. He was arrogant where he shouldn't have been. In Delphi, the city of his death, he got ahead of himself because of a woman whom he had an unrequited love for, though no one ever found out about this. He got angry at her slight and he told insulting tales to the people, in an attempt to best her, which made them toss him off a cliff. He was foolish."

"That sucks."

"Yeah it does, doesn't it." She nodded in agreement.

"Hey look there's Sagittarius, the bow man. Can you see him?"

"I can see him."

Naruto lay back in his sleeping bag and stared up at the sky "I wish sometimes that times like this could last forever. When it's just me and you out here. No one trying to deny my existence and no crazed fur ball wishing I were dead. And we could look up at the stars and I feel like I belong here."

"I know what you mean. The sky is so big and it over whelms you in a way while at the same time it makes you smile."

The boy nodded his head as he continued to lose himself in never ending inky blanket above him. Leah nodded before rolling over on her side so that she could face him.

"Why do you want to be hokage so badly?"

"Hm?" he looked over to where she was for a second before he turned away "Well, I always wanted to become hokage so that they notice me. Now I want to become hokage so that people can see that I'm not the fox."

She rolled over again so that she was once more on her back and facing the sky.

"I understand your point but somehow that's not a good enough reason to want to be a hokage." Her voice was soft and far off.

"It's not?"

"No, it's not. Tell me, how do you become strong?"

"You train really hard." her question had thrown him slightly off balance and he had now stopped watching the sky to gaze at her intently. In the light he could see her nod her head at his answer.

"Now tell me, how do you gain strength?"

"Huh?"

"Yes you heard me right."

"You train harder?" still unsure what she meant. Weren't they the same thing. "Aren't they the same thing? When you are strong you have strength right?"

"Wrong! The two are not the same, not in my book anyway. To become strong you must train, to gain strength you must have something driving you- something you fight for. What do you fight for? Your ambition? Do you fight for your beliefs, your friends and loved ones. Why do you fight? What is your reason? I fight to protect this beautiful world and everything and everyone in it, I never want to let it get destroyed so I become stronger so that I can protect it."

"Do I really need any other reason?"

"Power without a proper direction leads to destruction. So find something precious to you and fight to protect it so you can gain real strength."

The silence in the small clearing stretched on broken by the sound of night creatures and the rustle of the tree leaves as they were tickled by the night breeze.

"You don't need to understand this yet," Leah continued "but because you are you, I know you will soon get it so don't let it bother you okay?"

"'kay." He answered in a voice that was subdued before letting out a yawn.

Leah giggled slightly catching the sign that her young charge was about ready to retire to his subconscious world. She began to hum in a soft voice the tune to his favourite lullaby and he joined in for a bit before dozing off.

To her Naruto had come a long way, through the trials and tribulations. Her sudden question was triggered by the situation in Sunagakure. The young jinjuurikii had very recently under gone what was a traumatising experience for him and had come to his decision to fight for only himself. That was a path she never wanted Naruto to follow, a path of isolation and pain. True strength never gained by fighting for only yourself. Already Naruto had those whom he would do anything for, he just had to realise it.

* * *

><p>The hokage was bored. The most entertainment he had all day was the arrival of the genin team who had arrived with Tora. Even the cat had seemed strangely subdued, probably due to the fact that its attempt at escape had once more been foiled. Oh what he wouldn't do to have Naruto play a prank. He could offer the boy some form of payment to do something, the only thi9ngh that stopped him from doing that was the thought of the resulting paper work.<p>

"And so with the bandits…"

The chuunin in front of him droned on and on and on not even trying to hide the fact that he was so completely and absolutely bored.

"Hey old man!" A loud voice broke through the haze in the hokage's brain and he looked around hopefully.

Everyone else turned their head to face the loud blond that stood in front of them. Even the interrupted chunin looked happy for the distraction.

"Hey old man can I help? I'm bored!" The boy told them and then there was silence.

"You should be more respectful when addressing the hokage and of course you cannot help! What are you doing here anyway?" a scarred, brown haired man that Naruto had never before met told him.

"Can I?" he asked again, disregarding the man and staring straight at the chuckling hokage.

"Why the eagerness all of a sudden Naruto kun?"

The scarred man had to gape at the way the hokage took the boy's address.

"See, today is my day off because school starts tomorrow and I don't have to do anything" Leah had insisted he take the day off from training to relax before he returned to the academy the following day "I'd already gone running and drawing and taking care of my plants and I wanted to read my history book and as I was reading it I was wondering what it would be like to be a real ninja. Then I remembered Kaya sensei talking about this and about how all the ninja had to report to you so I wondered, maybe if I helped here I could learn all about the ninja and about the ninjas. Can I? Please¬"

"Alright Naruto kun, you can stay,"

The scarred man was at a loss for words.

"Thank you!"

"If you have any questions then you can ask Iruka." The hokage finished, with a twinkle in his eye.

Here the brown haired man spluttered at his superior.

"Who's Iruka?"

"Oh that's right you two haven't been properly introduced yet. Iruka Umino,"

He gestured to the brown haired chuunin that stood staring wordlessly at everything.

"this is Naruto Uzumaki. Naruto Uzumaki, this is Iruka Umino."

Naruto studied the man intensely before giving a little bow "It's a pleasure to make your acquaintance Iruka san."

The man turned from the small boy to the hokage. The loud boy, somewhat rude boy, was now replaced by a very polite little boy.

"Are you really serious about this hokage sama?" he really did not want to be rude about it but his brain was having a hard time processing it. This boy was extremely young and a well- known trouble maker: the Kyuubi brat.

"After all he is only five, he can barely write,"

"Actually, I'm six and I can write very well. Kaya sensei said so."

Wait sensei. That meant…

"Do not worry about it. Naruto will not cause any trouble, will you?"

"No hokage sama."

At this Iruka slowly nodded before making a move to sit down. Naruto saw this as acceptance and immediately rushed to the empty seat beside Iruka, flashed him a smile and then turned to the front to let the forgotten chuunin finish his report.

* * *

><p>Naruto smiled happily as he left the tower. The time in the mission room had been interesting for him. The oral mission reports had been for D rank missions, completely and totally boring, and C rank missions, mildly entertaining, and then those had not been detailed but the little they said had been enough to set his over active imagination spinning.<p>

He had also learnt how the mission rankings work and now had a slight idea of how they worked. As an added bonus, he had made a friend with the scarred man, Iruka, who seemed like a nice person. Not a wasted day at all. The hokage had also said he could help any time he wished and Naruto had agreed to come over for a couple of hours over the weekend that way he could talk to Iruka while learning one of the most important tasks to a hokage.

He looked up to the sky wondering just where the days had gone during the holidays though he thought the time was well spent. He had gotten the basics of the MRA down so he could now use the most basic functions of the ability but he still needed practice in that area. He had also managed to learn the tree walking exercise though he still couldn't do the bushin- he would request Kaya sensei's help once he returned to classes. He had not done much else save change his training weights and Gai seemed happy with his progress. All in all it was a pretty good holiday.

"oof!" he grunted as someone ran full tilt into him.

"I-I'm sorry!" the panicked voice came from on top him and he opened his eye to see a small girl, around his age quickly yank herself up and look down at her feet.

Was she crying? He couldn't see because her face was turned down wards. He stretched out his hand when suddenly-

"Hinata sama!" a man suddenly ran up to her and stood between her and Naruto.

"Hinata sama, it's time we return to the compound."

"Y- yes Ko san." And with that she was dragged away.

As she left she turned her head around giving Naruto a look at a pair of white eyes.

So she was a Hyuuga. He was a little taken aback and very awkwardly raised a hand in farewell to the little girl, offering her a smile as well. The girl blushed and quickly turned her head forward but then turned around shyly again. Even as she walked away and was lost into the crowd he caught the second look and he smiled slightly, sad that he would probably never get a chance to talk to her, especially if that Ko guy had anything to say about it, she seemed like a nice person, not as stiff as all the other Hyuuga he had seen around.

"Oh well," he shrugged his shoulder; but even as he did that he couldn't help but turn around and stare at the path where the girl had disappeared and as he did so he smiled once more before he began to walk away and was also lost in the crowd.

* * *

><p>Left, left, right, over, down, left, left, under, right , now!<p>

The bigger of the boys shot a hand towards his smaller counterpart. The smaller boy dogged and flipped back in the process using his feet to sweep up some dust to the older boys eyes. The boy instinctively dropped his guard to rub his eyes allowing the younger one to sweep him off his feet and the hold a fist to his face in a gesture that told the boy he couldn't get up.

"Winner, Uzumaki Naruto!" Kaya called.

"What? That's not fair, he cheated!"

"No he didn't Kaito. The rule was that you don't use any weapons which he didn't. Next time you should not be surprised by such a move. No matter what keep your feet firm and do not drop your defence. Now shake hands so that we can move onto the next round."

The older, brown haired boy growled at Naruto before reluctantly complying. And even then under his breath he whispered the word 'cheater' before leaving.

Naruto just shrugged his shoulders. To be honest the boy was a lousy fighter, so much so that Naruto wondered if he ever practiced, and Naruto could pick out the thousand and one things wrong with his fighting style, which the basic one that they all needed to learn. In between practicing it in his subconscious, where he slowly and painfully tried to make the style work for him, during the holidays and nights and getting his new friend Iruka to, in his spare time during the weekends, help him train Naruto was now rather well versed in this style. The boy had left Naruto many openings which were pathetically easy to spot, given how well versed he was in the academic taijutsu style; Naruto had just chosen not to take them.

* * *

><p>Naruto walked back home slowly once the last lesson for the day was over. He had left quickly without any target practice because Leah had said she wanted to teach him a new skill which could not be practiced while he slept.<p>

Speaking of his chibi friend, his life had changed somewhat drastically since she arrived. No it changed drastically even before that but he could not remember when or who caused it. His life was in many ways the same: the villagers, teachers and most of the students still treated him like a pariah. But in many ways it had improved. If not for her he might still have been having those nightmares, he would still have been having too much trouble with his homework and annoying Kaya sensei with his empty bravado which meant right now he would not have Kaya sensei as his friend who was willing to help with his school work. If not for her he would not have left the house to run around early in the morning and as a result he would not have met Gai, his running buddy. If he hadn't met Gai then he would not have the speed to dodge and counter most of the attacks thrown by his class mates. If she had not gotten him to study then he would not have discovered why he could not perform the basic academic jutsu, he was still having problems with the bushin but that was okay. It was all these factors that would allow him to pass the end of the years exams in a couple of weeks instead of being sent back to start afresh with next year's entrants.

To be honest he knew that he would be bottom of the class instead of among the top five if she had not come along. It was not that hard to get into the top ten seeing as he put in way more effort into his training than most of the others. His strength was not the best but that he compensated for with his speed.

Most of all he was glad for the company she provided and the fact that she cared about his well being and his diet and his performance at school. It was also fun to take part in the adventures she spun in his mind while he was asleep and the stories she told and the songs she sang.

He pushed open the door to his apartment and smiled.

"I'm home!" he called.

This place was home. He smiled happily as he dumped his bag on the sofa and ran to check on his potted plants. The potted garden in his balcony, over a month ago, after his birthday, he had planted the strawberries and he couldn't wait till they were fully grown. Best of all was the fact that he could actually attend the flower exhibition which was annually organised by foreign parties and so he could afford to maintain his garden.

"I see you're home short one. Welcome and please take a seat." Leah said in a mysterious voice suddenly appearing behind him, her legs crossed beneath her in a meditation pose.

He did as she asked, crossing his legs beneath him in an imitation of what she did.

"Good, short one," she said once he had settled. He wondered how she could tell, seeing as her eyes were still closed "now the skill which I will introduce to you today is a skill which will take several years to master. Your mind, body and patience will be pushed to the limit and even then you may never learn it. Are you ready to begin this journey which may never be completed knowing that the effects on your body may be quite… dangerous?"

"Yes, oh white haired one." Naruto replied without any hesitation. If she was ready to teach it then he was ready to learn it.

"Good," she opened her purple eyes and leaned forward slightly before whispering in a conspiring tone "tell me short one, what do you know about micro sleep?"

* * *

><p>So? What do you think? Good, bad, strawberryish? Thank you for reading.<p> 


	4. I've got a feeling

Disclaimer: Unless my name was suddenly changed to Masashi Kishimoto (which it definitely wasn't) then I do not own this story.

Hello everyone. Happy New Year! I t has been a really long time since I last updated this story- doesn't time just fly by? Anyway, I could spend time giving you excuses but I figure no one really wants to know. But I do want to apologise about living the story alone for this long. Even now as am typing am still trying to figure out what to do with the idea I have for this chapter but that's okay seeing as I get more ideas while typing than while sitting around thinking. There will be a few more chapters before Naruto graduates but there are a few things I want to clear up before then so please, please bear with me a little longer.

Please read the story and tell me what you think.

MVN- Ditto, got where you're coming from, I hope you like what I do with his team- yes I do have a plan.

Dazza- 96 - Thanks a bunch, I'm really flattered (honestly and truly flattered and right now I can't stop grinning.) I'm so glad you like the story. When it comes to pairings, eh don't worry about it. The relationship between Naruto and Hinata will be more friendship than anything.

Thanks to happy cheese for the review- much, much, much appreciated. Thank you!

* * *

><p>Konoha was burning. The Hokage faces on the mountain had turned to molten lava which was sliding down, consuming all that lay in its path. The people of Konoha were panicking, there were nothing but terrified screams, no words were spoken; men, women and children alike were fleeing for their lives.<p>

Amidst the flames and crumbling buildings was a small child in the shadow of the most fearsome beast known to the elemental nations; his once sparkling blue eyes were almost glazed over as he watched the scene before him and his arms were limp at his side. The shadow of the beast's nine tails seemed to control the almost lifeless body of the child.

Several brave Shinobi stood in between the fleeing civilians and the monster trying to slow it down and allow the fleer's to escape. With a vicious grin and a sweep of its tails the first line of fighters were gone and so on and so on.

Red eyes peered out from the shadows, white teeth gleaming though nothing else could be seen of them.

"We knew he was a monster." They raged "We told the hokage to get rid of it but he never listened, always fooled by that lifeless puppet it used to conceal itself."

"Look at that thing," the voices whispered "It walks around like a human, is it trying to deceive us? Too bad we already know its true form."

"Get away from here!" The voices were angry "Don't come near my child! Abomination! What a bad influence."

"Don't ever talk to that boy okay?" a voice soothed gently. "He's nothing but trouble."

Watching this scene from the side was a small lone figure. His eyes took in the scene and tears rolled down his cheeks as he saw the damage that was being done. To watch this- to see himself that way- was nothing short of torture but he found himself unable to close his eyes or move.

With his hands clasped tightly over his ears to block out the voices, he watched as, slowly, the figure in the fox's shadow tried to escape but it was no use, he was depleted of energy. The nine tails smiled.

"Give in already boy, you have lost." One of its tails came up and slammed a mask over the face of the child. Once again the struggling of the child grew less until it eventually stopped. Once he stopped, the mask began to change. First whisker marks formed on the pure white surface, then sharp gleaming teeth appeared and finally a pair of red eyes became visible through the eye holes.

At this moment the boy got up, his form no longer limp and to all who were watching, he was now acting of his own accord. But the small boy viewing everything from the side could still see the shadow tails manipulating the body. At last unable to take anymore he shouted out:

"Free him! Live him alone!"

From experience he knew no one would hear, but still, he couldn't just stand and say nothing. To his utmost surprise the beast seemed to hear him and turned to him:

"What freedom do you wish for? You have never been free under their persecution. You have always been my shadow, a mere result of my influence- even your character is something created by me. At least now you are who they always wished you were. Don't you want to live up to their expectations? Doesn't it feel good to not hold back? This is the ultimate form of freedom which I have given you. Lose this, and you lose it all!"

Suddenly Naruto was thrown into a black abyss, the words of the voices now jumbled and confusing, so much so that he had to put his hands over his ears again and pray for release.

Naruto jerked up on his bed, he was in a cold sweat. He looked over at his alarm clock and noticed it was barely four hours since he had gone to bed. He let his body fall back into his bed with a thud, as he tried to make sense of his jumbled thoughts. He hadn't been able to escape that dream, even with all his training and that could mean only one of two things: that this particular scene would happen in the near future; or there was something his subconscious really needed to get across to him: those were the two types of dreams he knew he would not be able to escape by any means. Seeing as he had participated in this dream from a bystander's point of view it was really obvious that the cause of the dream was the second scenario.

He racked his brain trying to discover what was wrong; it was obviously something to do with the Kyuubi. Last time Leah had checked the seal, everything was okey dokey. But something about the Kyuubi was obviously bothering him or else… He sighed as he recalled his dream again. That dream was scary:

"_You have always been my shadow, a mere result of my influence- even your character is something created by me."_

That was what the Kyuubi had said. Was it true? No, that couldn't be, he shook his head to clear it of such a grim thought. Leah had told him he his own person and the fact that Kaya sensei and Iruka were his friends even though they were adults proved that they did not think he was the Kyuubi or influenced by the Kyuubi. With that comforting thought he lay down his head and went back to sleep.

* * *

><p>Naruto walked slowly as he headed for the Academy. He could not remember the last time he had felt so tired- he had been so tired he had slept in and missed his morning run with Gai. That had never happened before. He had found Gai and apologised, and the man had accepted his apology without any fuss.<p>

He just couldn't figure out what was wrong with him. Save that one time he had been awoken by the nightmare he had had a very restful night, so why did he feel so drained this morning? He would have liked to talk to Leah but she had gone somewhere and wouldn't be back for the next week. That was why he was taking the next best option- Kaya sensei. His sensei, as he had realised not too long ago, was actually a really nice and understanding person and perhaps she could ease his mind of the nagging feeling at the back of it.

"Hey, why don't you apologise properly? Think you're too good to apologise to us?"

Oh gosh, not now! Naruto was exasperated. With that tone of voice, only one person, or three people, came to mind. Those annoying people, school had not even started and they were already getting on his nerves. In his class everyone knew those three; they just loved to bully those weaker or younger than them. At one point in time Naruto had been their target but his silence and perseverance coupled with the look of utter boredom he always gave them had made them stop- after all no one likes feeling like they are both stupid and boring, especially when the person implying that was younger than you.

So who was their unlucky target this time? Naruto stepped through the bush into his special hideout and was surprised to see the girl who had bumped into him some months back- it was extremely hard to forget a Hyuuga who was not sneering at him with their eyes.

The girl looked like she was about to cry and her quietly whispered apology carried her obvious nervousness. Naruto was already irritated enough but then to see this trio bullying the girl because she seemed unable to defend herself caused his annoyance to reach its peak.

"What are you guys doing here?" Naruto asked, making his presence known.

The three of them swung around sharply and faced him with identical glares. "None of your business! Now go away."

Naruto, seeming to ignore them, turned to the girl "Hello, what are you doing here? The introduction for first years should be long over."

She nodded her head very eagerly, too nervous to speak "I'm, I'm, I'm-"

"Hey you!" One of the boys interrupted.

"You're still here?" Naruto asked turning his attention back to them.

"What was that shrimp? So rude to us just because you think you're special. Think sensei is going to show up and protect you? Well news flash, we're not in class, sensei is not here and we're free to mess you up in whatever way we please."

"Is that so?" Naruto asked with an amused smirk. Normally he did not rise to these sorts of challenges but today he really needed a way to vent his stress and occupy his mind, "Do you wanna try? If you win I will be your servant for the rest of the year but if I win you agree to do one thing I say. Does that sound fair?"

The three boys exchanged a look amongst themselves. To be able to get the smug little brat as a goffer for a whole year was too good a deal to pass up.

"Alright then you have a deal. But don't go back on your word or else-"

Naruto nodded, "I'll even take you three on one." he said as he handed his bag to the girl, "Hold this and stay out of the way." she nodded quickly and moved away to where she hoped she would not be a disturbance.

The first boy rushed at Naruto who quickly left the way as the boy came near and stuck out his foot so the boy tripped on it and went straight into the bushes. Then in one move he caught the oncoming fist of the second boy and slammed his right foot into the boy's knee so the boy faltered and fell to his knee. A leg to the stomach and a head butt later and the boy was out for the count. Naruto now stood in the middle of his two classmates- if this was a cartoon the two boys would have been foolish enough to rush him at the same time leaving Naruto to duck so they K.O themselves, but as it went these boys had also seen that cartoon so they moved one at a time.

The first boy rushed Naruto again, this time careful of his feet. Naruto dodged his punch then caught the fist of the third boy over his back and with a quick adjustment of his stance was able to pull the boy over his shoulder and slam him onto the ground. His danger sensors went off and Naruto quickly crossed his arm in front of his face just before he received a brutal knee hit to his nose and staggered back. Taking this chance the boy tried to follow with a side kick to the ribs but Naruto caught the boy's leg and before the boy could react Naruto had slammed the top of his head into the boy's chin.

The fight lulled for a moment as both boys nursed their injuries, both glaring at the other. Once again they rushed at each other. Naruto easily able to dodge the boy's punches as he looked for an opening: then he found one. As quickly as he could move he grabbed the boy's fist and manoeuvred so that the arm was firmly twisted behind the boy's back, next he slammed his leg into the back of the boy's knee then slammed his elbow into the middle of the boy's back and with that the fight was over.

Two of the boys stood up and held the last boy- who was completely out of it- between them. From the way one was standing you could tell he could not fight anymore and the last one, while almost undamaged, was reluctant to face Naruto.

"Alright Uzumaki, you won- but only because I was too tired to do any real damage!" The first boy said "So what do you want? Want us to be your servants for the term? Do your homework for you? Carry your bag?"

"Eat your veggies?" the other boy piped up.

"Nothing of the sort. Just want you to leave her alone." He pointed at the girl who was quietly standing off to one side "You're not allowed to bully her as long as she remains in this school. Deal?"

The boys glared but then nodded their heads "Deal."

The two of them walked away, dragging their friend along. Naruto wasn't worried about them breaking their word- law of the playground and all that jazz.

"Um… are you okay?" a quiet voice asked from behind him.

"You look like you're in need of some ice, Naruto." Another voice said.

Naruto looked around and saw his sensei of two years approaching them.

"Kaya sensei!"

"Bravo Naruto, a fine display if I ever saw one." She said as she applauded slowly. "There should be some ice in the refrigerator in the teachers' lounge, come with me." Then she turned a warm smile to the girl standing there quietly, "You're very welcome to come along…"

"Hi- Hi- Hinata." She quietly stuttered out.

"Ah Hinata chan… What a nice name. Why don't you come with us? I'll treat you two to so-"

What she was about to say was cut off as a man came running to them with a loud shout of "Hinata sama!"

"Hinata sama! Hinata sama! Are you okay?" he asked, panicked and out of breath.

"I'm fine Ko san." She replied quietly.

"That's good. Thank you very much for taking care of Hinata sama." He said, turning to Kaya and ignoring Naruto.

"I didn't do anything. Naruto kun did all the hard work, you should thank him." She said, putting emphasis on the last sentence when she saw the reluctance in his face.

The man took the hint. "Thank you very much Naruto san." He said, his manner colder and more rigid that it had been with Kaya.

The air suddenly became tense and awkward and under the man's cold eyes Naruto turned his head away and kept his eyes to the ground, for some strange reason he found himself unable to answer the man. Instead he bit his lips and kept his stance as the man left the clearing with Hinata not seeming to mind Naruto's lack of response. All at once the words from his dream came back to him:

"_You have never been free under their persecution."_

He shook his head to clear his mind as he tried to stifle a yawn. He was instantly reminded the reason why he had come to look for his sensei in the first place as a wave of tiredness hit him.

"You okay?" Kaya asked in a kind voice "You look kind of tired." She smiled at him. "Why don't you come lie down in the teachers' lounge and take a nap while I finish my work. Once I'm done then I'll treat you to some ramen and the two of us can have a nice long chat. How does that sound?"

Naruto nodded enthusiastically very ready to take her suggestion.

"Okay, then let's go." She said, taking his bag pack from him and leading the way towards the school building.

* * *

><p>Hinata Hyuuga was both excited and nervous: excited because today she was starting at the ninja academy. Even under normal circumstances this was an exciting event but for her it was even more so because she was looking forward to seeing the senpai that had saved her the previous day and she had not got a chance to say thank you. From looking at his size she had thought he was her age mate but from the way he addressed both the boys from yesterday and the sensei it was obvious he had been in the Academy for some time. She had already spotted both the boys and the sensei in the line for third years but she could not see Naruto anywhere, maybe he was late.<p>

The reason she was nervous- apart from the obvious reason of being in a new school- was because last night someone had broken into the Hyuuga apartment and pranked (attacked?) Ko.

This morning when the Hyuuga clan had awoken, pictures of Ko bald and in very nicely applied makeup had been circulating not only in the compound but also outside it. That was surprising because the guards had not seen anyone. Everyone in the clan had been disturbed and the Hyuuga head had doubled the amount of guards around his daughters. The thought that there was someone in Konoha skilled and brave enough to pull such a stunt was a scary.

Even still, her nervousness could not dull her excitement and as soon as the hokage started speaking all other thoughts were lost from her head.

* * *

><p>Thud, thud, thud. What was that sound? Naruto rolled over in bed and tightly pulled his pillow over his ears but the noise would not go away. In fact it seemed to be getting louder.<p>

"Looks like someone needs you." NS1 said to Naruto who was currently aiming at a target using a cool looking crossbow.

Naruto groaned and left his subconscious. He rolled down his bed and landed on the floor with a loud thud. Oh my gosh! He had not even gotten out of bed and he was already having a bad day.

"Coming! Coming! So stop all the noise already!" He shouted, thoroughly annoyed that he had been forced to get up from his bed.

He opened his doors and was immediately faced by the by the white eyes of three members of the Hyuuga clan. Without thinking he let out a groan- like his headache wasn't already bad enough.

"Uzumaki Naruto?"

Naruto looked at the man that was talking without flinching away.

"We believe this is your handy work." The man said holding a photo of that Ko guy to his face. The only difference was that this guy was bald and had a beautiful makeup job.

Naruto was caught between making an 'oooh that got to hurt' face and laughing his butt out. It was only natural that he chose to laugh.

"Nope, not my work." He said.

"Is that so?"

"Yep." He said, already closing the door in their faces.

"Be that as it may," the man said "you have to come see the hokage."

"Why? I already said I didn't do it."

"Please come with us Uzumaki san." The man said ignoring him completely.

Naruto glared at them, meeting all three pairs of cold eyes one after the other. He looked at the clock hanging over his bedroom door and let out a low growl. He did not need to be in school till 8:00am, even though they had an hour long assembly, seeing as today a new set of first years were coming in and they had to listen to the hokage's speech and the like. It was only 7:15am.

"Fine. Coming." A quarter of an hour later he emerged, bathed, dressed and holding a chicken sandwich. He had changed his usual attire (worn since he met Leah) and now wore a white, short sleeved t- shirt; long black cargo pants with orange lining and spiral marks on the pockets; and black snickers with orange lining. His long yellow hair looked even messier than normal and fell over his eyes (no goggles) and his black bag pack was slung over one shoulder.

" 'Kay then, let's go."

As they walked through the streets, the Hyuuga escorting him like some sort of prisoner, he could hear all the whispers of the people.

"_Never too early for gossip is it?" _he said to himself.

This was not fair; he had tried for months to get a clean slate and gain some trust and all in one day it was destroyed. When they did find out who had done it they weren't going to clear his name and the people were going to go on thinking ne had done it. Honestly he had no problem being escorted like a prisoner when he had actually pulled a prank but right now, with his head ache and how sleepy he was, he did not want to deal with all these people.

"_Don't you want to live up to their expectations?"_

The words from the dream came back and he had to shake his head to clear his thought of them. Honestly, that dream disturbed him more than it should. That nagging feeling at the back of his mind that he could not get rid of no matter how hard he tried- what was it that was bothering him? In that instance he retreated from the outside world as he tried to look for what was bothering him; at least being lost in thought was better than having to deal with all the glares and cold glances.

* * *

><p>Naruto had been sitting outside the hokage's office for close to forty five minutes when the hokage arrived but Naruto was still lost in thought so he did not notice him till the old man spoke to him.<p>

"Good morning Naruto kun, how are you today?"

Naruto looked up at the old man a smile slowly making its way to his face "Morning ji san." He greeted in an enthusiastic tune.

"Good morning hokage sama." The members of the Hyuuga clan greeted and the hokage acknowledged them with a nod and a smile.

"How about we talk about this in my office?" He said with a gesture to his office door.

When they were all in the office, the members of the Hyuuga clan standing in front of the desk and Naruto sitting on the floor in a cross-legged position the hokage began:

"So what is this all about?" He asked, first looking from the members of the Hyuuga clan to Naruto, then back again.

"Hokage sama, we believe Uzumaki san is the one responsible for this particular prank." The speaker of the Hyuuga clan said stepping forward and dropping the picture of Ko on the hokage's desk.

When he looked at the picture, the corner of Hiruzen's eyes crinkled slightly in amusement. After looking at the picture for some time he dropped it and turned to Naruto:

"Now Naruto kun what do you know about this photo?" Naruto was about to start speaking when the hokage held up his hand in a gesture to delay his speaking "Remember that not only the distribution of these photos but also the breaking into the Hyuuga compound and into this house can be considered a serious offense. However if you did do it and own up now your punishment will be less severe." The Hyuugas seemed to want to protest but a single glance from the hokage told them to keep quiet.

"Sorry old man, but I didn't do it." Naruto said defiantly. "Not only do I not have a reason to prank that guy but don't you think it's kinda impossible for a seven year old to break into the compound of one of the most revered Shinobi"- emphasis on Shinobi- "clans in Konoha?"

Here the Hyuugas had to share some looks between themselves that both acknowledged his point and wanted to deny it. The hokage saw their looks and almost shook his head- if it was any other seven year old he would not even have bothered taking up the case, the reason he had even decided to question Naruto was because the kid seemed to be a genius when it came to things like this. He would not have put it past Naruto to find a way to break in if he was really determined to do so.

He looked at Naruto who sat on the floor looking tired and defiant. Something in the way the boy's face was scrunched up told the hokage that Naruto was not the culprit or else was a very good actor.

"Very well. It seems Naruto kun did not do it, you are dismissed." With a slight shuffling of feet, the room emptied out leaving only Naruto and the hokage.

"Yes, what is it Naruto?"

"You don't think that I could get a shushin to school and maybe a late note, do you?"

"Ah. I see." The old man looked around on his desk for some paper and scribbled a note which he handed to Naruto. "You really didn't do it?" he asked once more. Even if the boy had done it he had no intention of telling the Hyuuga- too much trouble. He gestured and one Anbu appeared and took Naruto's hand.

"Nope, wasn't me."

"Any idea who?"

As the Anbu made the signs for the shushin Naruto turned a lopsided grin at the hokage "Probably Red Harry." And with that he was gone.

The hokage let out a small smile as he got the joke then as he turned back to his desk he let out a sigh. Paper work never ended.

* * *

><p>Naruto entered the class as Kaya sensei was going through the names on the register. He handed her the note and took a seat close to the back of the class. When she was done she congratulated them on making it to the year and told them what they might expect this year then gave a short inspirational speech. Naruto was not really interested in what she was saying but was taking in the members of his class.<p>

There were two Hyuugas- one male, one female (oh joy, he was sure that after the incident with Ko he was going to be rather famous with the Hyuuga clan); One Inuzuka- male; two Akimichis- both males; an Uchiha-female; One Yamanaka- female; One Nara- female; One Aburame- male; and Kentaro Miyasaka- currently the most popular boy in his year. The rest of his classmates came from civilian clans, from less popular Shinobi clans or from Shinobi families. He could recognise some of the students there to be from his former class but they were also students from other classes. All in all his class was okay; he had not been put with the annoying trio.

"Alright, since I am busy right now, you guys are free to do anything you want till I come back with your syllabuses but don't make too much noise or else you're going to be doing laps till 7pm." Then she left.

As soon as the door closed the class became a madhouse: paper and wooden airplanes flew into the air; notes began changing hands; the Yamanaka began talking to the Nara, the Uchiha and a few other girls; Kentaro was swarmed by males and females alike; bags of chips and candy were retrieved; and a few guys were having a contest to see who could drink the most orange soda in the shortest time.

Naruto lay down his head on his desk, blocking out the ruckus as only he could, and tried to go to sleep.

"Hey there!"

He slowly turned around and came face to face with the Inuzuka boy, short, spiky black hair, huge smile, markings and all. Naruto immediately turned back around. He did not really want to be rude but the only students that had ever tried to approach him were always making fun of him. Right now he did not want to deal with this.

"Oi I'm trying to be friendly, no need to be rude!" The boy protested.

Naruto turned around again and the boy let out a big smile, "My names Daiki Inuzuka. You're Naruto Uzumaki right?" he said, sticking out his hand for a hand shake.

Naruto raised his head from his desk and took his hand. Daiki gave it an enthusiastic shake and without letting go said: "Man you're different from what I imagined. For starters you're really small and when I saw you trying to go to sleep you struck me more as a Nara than a prankster."

Where was he going with this? Naruto was sure the boy would eventually get to the point so he did not bother asking any questions.

"By the way, I'm a fan of your work. I was kind of disappointed when you stopped pulling pranks but then that stunt you pulled yesterday at the Hyuuga mansion got me applauding- never thought you woulda had tha courage to pull it off but it just reminded me why you're still the undisputed prank master in the Academy."

Hearing what Daiki said, the two Hyuugas turned around and glared at Naruto. Daiki stuck his tongue out at them before giving Naruto a lopsided grin. "What a bunch of mud pies, can't appreciate a good joke even at this age."

"I didn't pull that prank." Naruto said smiling, "I'm grateful to whoever did though, was worth a good laugh this morning. It would have been even better if I didn't have to get in trouble for it." At that he frowned slightly.

"You didn't pull it? I mean, there's no need to be modest about it or worry what those mud pies think."

"Nope, not my handy work. I haven't pulled any pranks for a few months now."

"Why? School's so boring, your pranks always made my day. Don't tell me you're turning into a stick in the mud character. If that happens then we wouldn't be able to team up and become the greatest pranking team Konoha has ever known. We could have our names in history books, have video games made to depict our greatness; we could even establish our own museum that describes all the great pranks- ow!"

"Don't corrupt him with your lame ideas!" the Yamanaka girl said, coming up behind Daiki.

"He's already been corrupted- OW!" Daiki mumbled but she heard him anyway and he got a fist to the head for it.

"Don't listen to this baka Naruto else you're going to become a baka too." She said turning to Naruto.

"Hey!" Daiki protested with a look of indignation on his face, but she ignored him.

"Hello, my name's Ai Yamanaka." she had blue eyes and short blond hair cut in a bob "I've been in the same class with this baka for two years so I know that listening to any of his crazy ideas is only going to get you in a lot of trouble. But you know, now that I look at you, you're really cute, just like a little cherubim doll. So adorable," she half squealed "we could totally be related."

"No chance. If he were related to you he wouldn't be as smart or as awesome as he's said to be." Daiki butted in.

"What was that Inuzuka? My grades were among the best in my class and where were yours? See, no reply."

"Ha, you're only smart when it comes to books. When you get on the field what are you going to do? Bore your enemy to death with theory?"

"Not if you first cause him to die from laughing at your stupidity." she retorted and they both glared at each other.

"He's asleep." The Uchiha girl pointed out in a bored tone.

"Now see what you did?" Daiki said angrily "Your droning put my greatest ally to sleep."

"What was that poochie?" a name that she knew irritated Daiki to no end.

And with that the two got into a heated verbal battle.

"There they go again." one of the girls said with a sigh.

"Can't believe we're going to have to put up with their bickering for another year." Another girl said.

"Well you can't really blame Ai, after all, he did set her hair on fire and you know how particular she is about beauty and fashion and all those troublesome things." The Nara said.

"And a girl's hair is her life." one girl piped up, "My older sister always says so."

"But the prank was funny." an Akimichi pointed out.

Suppressed giggles and chuckles went round the circle and even the Nara and Uchiha grinned. No one but Ai would dispute that particular point.

* * *

><p>"Alright!" Daiki cheered "School's out, time to have some fun! Hey Naruto, what do you normally do for fun?" he asked.<p>

"Sleep." Naruto replied in monotone. Well it was true, he did have a lot of fun while he was asleep, more fun than anyone in the real world knew (Leah excepted)

"Are you sure you're not a Nara?"

"Yup, pretty sure." Naruto said with a small grin.

"Well," Daiki continued "Today we got out really so it's too early for lunch. The dogs are also going to be getting a check-up so we won't be able to play with them that much if we go to my home. Let's play a prank."

"Let's sleep."

"Too boring!"

Naruto suddenly stopped and looked across the street while Daiki kept on walking ahead, mumbling ideas for fun to himself.

"Are you interested in weapons?" he asked

"Wha-?" Daiki had finally noticed the absence of his companion and came back. He followed Naruto's view and saw he was looking at a book shop entrance. "Not really but I wouldn't mind a sword, something large and cool."

"Uh- huh. Then come with me."

"To a bookshop?" He sounded sceptic "We're not going to find anything interesting in here!" Daiki protested even as he followed Naruto to the shop.

"Hey T!" Naruto greeted the large man behind the counter.

"Naruto, welcome." The man greeted back. "Your order's come in, you got the cash?"

Naruto nodded and from one of his many pant pockets he extracted a sealing scroll much to Daiki's amazement, sealing scrolls, while heard of, were not common in their age group. When Naruto applied chakra to the scroll it released a fat- to the point of bursting- frog wallet onto the counter that caused Daiki's eyes to bulge.

"Whoa, you've got a lot of money, let's have a barbecue feast, we can eat till we drop!" honestly, it was really surprising to see that much money on someone younger than himself or even his age.

He stopped talking when he saw the huge (Think two or three huge encyclopaedias joined together) book T pulled out. He was even more astounded when T sealed it in a scroll and handed it to Naruto.

"That big book is yours?"

"Yes. It's got everything you need to know about weapons: history, dimensions; modifications; best types. It is a limited edition. The ultimate guide to all things sharp, pointy and dangerous, and I've been looking forward to getting it."

"Don't tell me you're going to read it all!" Daiki was still taken aback.

"No way! Only the parts I need or want." Naruto looked shocked at such a suggestion "I wanted this cause it's going to help me with the visualisation process."

Daiki was going to ask what exactly that was when two boys ran past him.

"No way, really?" one boy was asking the other.

"Yeah." I heard someone say so the other replied.

Daiki looked around and noticed that everyone seemed to be moving in the same direction. "Alright, finally, some excitement!" he grabbed Naruto and immediately began to drag him with the crowd.

Naruto had a sinking feeling in his gut. Right now he wanted to go the other way but Daiki kept on pulling him. He sighed and resigned to his fate.

He had his mouth wide open as he recognised the three Hyuuga men that were tied solidly with what seemed to be woven duct tape and hanging down from the roof of the biggest convenient store in the market area of Konoha. One had his hair dyed pink and freely flowing along with glasses and a swirly moustache drawn on with a marker; the other had hair dyed orange and cut like a clowns- his face was painted like some kind of crazy rock star; and the third had his face painted like a cat's- black nose, whiskers, and even cat ears- he had a small placard near his face that read: I AM A CUTE CAT, NYEEOW, GIVE ME MILK. Further up was a cardboard that read: BEHOLD MY PRISONERS AND FEAR THE REIGN OF THE PHANTOM- NYAH, NYAH, and NYAH. They had all been knocked out and only now was one of them beginning to awake. As soon as he opened his eyes, he immediately snapped to attention and began to try to free himself. The others woke soon after.

Naruto was dumb struck when he saw this. It was not that hard for him to recognise the faces because of his memory and for some reason he felt bad. He was going to get blamed for this.

"Wow," was all Daiki could say. They're Hyuugas." Naruto only nodded dumbly. "Think maybe this dude is targeting Hyuugas?" he asked after coming to the conclusion that this prankster was the same one from the morning.

Naruto's eyes lit up at that. That was right, what was he worried about? For all he knew this person was targeting Hyuugas and this was only a coincidence! Why hadn't he thought of that? Now that he was excited and relieved he could see a few things like how he had an alibi- Daiki could prove his innocence.

"Alright let's go." Naruto said enthusiastically.

"Where?" Daiki was puzzled.

"To get dango. My treat. We'll only get a few sticks so it won't count as a full meal and we can get lunch later."

"Then what are we waiting for?" Daiki began to lead the way with Naruto following after.

He may still be tired but at least now he would not have to deal with any Hyuuga and that was enough to put him in a good mood.

* * *

><p><span>NEXT TIME<span>

"Who are you? And why do you seem like you're trying to get Naruto into trouble?" Daiki asked the figure that stood some way in front of he, Hinata and Naruto.

The figure was around the same height as Naruto. He had long, vibrant red hair that was spiky and fell over his silver eyes in a way that was not dorky. He wore a white shirt, baggy pants and a belt with a white faceless mask clipped onto it. Over these he wore a long unzipped trench coat lined with red.

"Isn't it obvious?" he asked with a condescending smirk "I'm phantom- the greatest prankster Konoha has ever known! Heh."

"What are you talking about? That title is Naruto's and mine- soon enough!"

"Is that so?" Phantom asked with a smile that irritated Daiki to no end.

His hand reached for his belt and the three that stood opposite of him tensed. Phantom seemed to see this and smirked, irritating Daiki again. It was official- Daiki did not like this guy. Phantom pulled up his mask and put it on. Naruto was immediately on high alert- the mask and gesture were familiar and Naruto knew what was coming next.

He watched as the faceless mask began to morph until it seemed to become the Phantom's face or… his own? The three ninja in training were struck.

"That's your face?" Daiki whispered to a white faced Naruto who all of a sudden felt drained.

"Now I'm Naruto, any queries?" Phantom said with a cheeky grin but his opponents were speechless "None I presume." He said with a spring with his voice "As for your second question: Naruto is already to blame for every other thing right? Might as well pin this on him too." and at this he sent Naruto a look full of mockery.

Naruto narrowed his eyes at him but it was Hinata that spoke.

"Y-you coward!"

"Yeah, take blame for your own actions!" Daiki agreed; Naruto said nothing.

Phantom stopped his staring contest with Naruto and placed that infuriating smile back on his face as he replied.

"I am and I assure you I will."

With that he turned into smoke and disappeared.

Daiki turned to Naruto, ready to begin his rant but before he could say anything Naruto spoke abruptly "Let's go." And without waiting for a reply, turned and began to leave.

Daiki and Hinata exchanged a look that relayed all their questions and concerns but said nothing as they turned and followed him.

* * *

><p>See you next time! On a random note, Daiki's name was supposed to be Hoeru- to go with the Inuzuka theme and all- but I found that I preferred Daiki more so I stuck to it and I feel it fits him pretty well; what do you guys think?<p> 


	5. This is my town

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto in any way or form. I do not own Hatsune Miku or any of her songs. I do not own 'My Town' or the band that sang it. I do not own the story told by Kaya, that belongs to Aesop and I found it on the internet. I only own my OCs, plot line and things like that.

Thank you so, so much to those who reviewed or alerted. I appreciate it a lot and I hope this chapter does not let down your expectations. Only one more chapter till he graduates so please bear with me till then. I hope you enjoy the chapter and as you read keep in mind that Naruto is still seven years old.

In this chapter the prankster, Phantom gives Naruto some trouble; The fourth Hokage is given a black eye; there is talk of a prank off; Someone throws a little tantrum; and bonds are deepened: all coming your way.

* * *

><p>SOMETIME BEFORE THE TROUBLE ALL BEGINS<p>

There were countless stars in the night sky. In an open field a girl that looked no more than eight stood under a large oak tree. She had a round, pretty face and long, blonde, curly hair in a pigtail with several pink and blue stripes running through her hair. She had purplish blue eyes and wore a large orange, white dotted hat that oddly reminded one of a mushroom. She also wore a white shirt with short, puffy sleeves under a short, sleeveless orange vest; a loose pair of white three quarter trousers with strings firmly tied at the bottom; and a black pair of sandals.

A figure, as small as she was, walked up to her and under a moon that was so large and bright that it looked like it was touching the ground you could see long, bright red hair and piercing silver eyes. The person wore a white shirt, baggy pants and a belt with a white faceless mask clipped onto it. Over these he wore a long black jacket which was made of a light material and reached to his ankles; it was unzipped and lined with red.

"You're new!" the girl said enthusiastically with a chirpy smile on her face. Welcome to the family… Uhm what's your name?"

"I don't know," he replied with an air of indifference, "I can take any name I choose because I am anyone I wish to become."

She snorted in a derisive manner before smiling at him again "But this is your true face right? What do you call yourself when you have on this face?"

He tilted his head slightly as if listening for a sound. In the distance he could hear the hooting of owls and quite close by the chirping of crickets and croaking of frogs but nothing came to mind. In the silence of the night he had been sure that he would hear his name whispered to him but nothing came to him except for the mission he had been born with, born for. Like he needed no name, like his individual person was not important enough to be recognised and that stung. But he pushed that feeling aside and replied.

"I am not important, only my mission exists."

"Are you stupid or something?" The girl asked. "You sound dumb saying something like how only your mission exists and how you're not important. Of course you're important. You're part of all this," here she waved her hands about to gesture everything around her.

He looked around and saw nothing but the surroundings. "And this is important." she finished triumphantly.

"We have a connection you know. Probably…I know why you were not given a name and were sent here. Because of certain inconveniences and the disturbance, for now I will be the one naming you." She put her hand under her chin in a way that covered her mouth and showed she was thinking. Her brow furrowed in thought and her eyes were far away as she tried to come up with a suitable name for her newest companion. The boy watched her with unconcealed curiosity wondering what she would come up with.

Her head suddenly snapped up so quickly that he was sure he heard a snap but she showed no visible reaction as she thumped a fist on her open palm, a sign of enlightenment, and beamed at him "Phantom! That's it, that's your new name. Stealthy, unseen, and totally badass: my favourite manga character. Your power sounds like something a phantom can do so that is your name from now on. Now you feel important right? Because I just spent the last two minutes of my time trying to name you and I gave you the name of someone I like a lot."

He chuckled softly, his laughter carrying in the wind. Two minutes… he chuckled again. But he had to admit that somehow he did feel better. When he thought that no one cared it was a feeling that had created a sort of pang somewhere in him and somehow having a name made him feel a whole lot better. Plus he liked his new name.

"Phantom." He repeated to himself- yeah he could work with that.

"Do you understand why your mission is so important?" her voice cut through his thoughts. She was grave as she now addressed him.

Yes, he understood it. He understood why the disturbance had to be gotten rid of when it was still fresh.

"Then go and do what you have to do in the way you think best."

He gave a single curt nod.

"Oh, and have fun with it." She smiled at him.

He regarded her for a moment before his mouth took the shape of a smirk and his eyes glinted with amusement:

"I plan to." With that he turned into blue smoke and disappeared.

The girl looked across at the moon as she heard a wolf howl, then she turned back to where Phantom had stood a few minutes ago. Slowly she brought her hand up and rubbed her nose "I forgot to tell him my name."

* * *

><p>Daiki was excited because he had moved up another year in the ninja academy. Starting a new term was something that always made him weary but there was something particularly magical about starting a new year that always made him excited even though he knew that soon enough he might be complaining about it.<p>

He sat in one of the seats furthest from the door and close to the back of the room but next to a window. From this position it would be easy to see anyone coming in as well as partake in… other activities should classes begin to tire him out.

He studied his new teacher closely when she came in: she was small, even for a female, and she had a nice warm smile- he wondered if she would be easy to push around. His teacher for the last two years had been a dragon- not in a good way. Probably in his mid-thirties, that man had been both extremely boring and strict and their lazy ass assistant teacher was okay with dozing off or missing days while he let the other man take over, that was why he always anticipated the days when someone was brave enough to pull a prank- he often did so himself.

In particular he looked forward to the days when Naruto Uzumaki played a prank. More likely than not, his pranks were on a large enough scale to have many of the teachers running around like headless chickens- it was always interesting. Then a few months ago it suddenly stopped, there were no more pranks.

It was torture to have to sit through his classes every day and he was super glad when he found he was no longer in that man's class. Good riddance and good luck to whoever had to be stuck with him for the next two years before the graduating class was chosen- he had escaped just in time.

He felt even more relieved when he saw a few of his classmates, some already in their sits and some just coming in, greet the sensei with a smile on their faces and how warmly she greeted them back. A particular black haired boy seemed to be sulking but she messed up his hair anyway and even though he acted like he did not like it, Daiki could see a ghost of a smile on his face as he turned away from her.

Everyone had now settled down- something that took a long time because of the excitement in the air- and the teacher begun the roll call.

Daiki could see some of his people from his previous class like Shiso Akimichi- looked like there were two Akimichi in his class this year. He also recognised someone whom he was not pleased to see- Ai Yamanaka. Set a girl's hair on fire once and she becomes your worst enemy. How was he supposed to know that his smoke bomb would act like that?

"Inuzuka Daiki?"

"Present!"

Not to mention that he did apologise, he laughed his butt of first but he did apologise… eventually. With her were Amaya Uchiha and Yoshiki Nara her best friends. There were some others that he recognised but were too unimportant to be noted.

"Uzumaki Naruto?"

That got him to listen. Uzumaki Naruto was in his class?

"Can someone check if Naruto has arrived yet?"

Some people looked around and it was confirmed that he was not yet present.

So Naruto was in his class? That was interesting information.

A few minutes later the door opened and a small figure with bright blond hair walked into the room. Were they getting another Yamanaka in their class?

"You're late Naruto." The teacher said in a tone that demanded an explanation from the blond.

"Sorry sensei." He apologised with a sheepish smile before handing her a small note. She took the note and briefly glanced at it before nodding.

"Take a sit."

That was Naruto? That small kid with the whisker marks and bags under his eyes? Daiki focused on the kid as he walked towards his row of benches and took a sit some rows behind him.

Somehow, Daiki felt the term was not going to get boring as he had eventually suspected.

Daiki spent the day with Naruto reminiscing about some of Naruto's greatest prank and telling Naruto about his own pranks. The two of them had talked till 10am when they were let out for the day- something that was always done on the first day of a new year when there was nothing to talk about. Even though he had gotten into a spat with Ai he was in a very good mood when they left school.

He and Naruto were walking through the streets after Naruto treated them to some dango when a man bumped into Naruto. The man must have been extremely dizzy when he bumped Naruto because Naruto was definitely not in his way. What got Daiki angry was when the man dropped his groceries and made Naruto pick them up, mentioning some obscene amount he would force Naruto to pay if any were damaged.

Daiki was pissed at that. It was obvious who was at fault. Of course there would always be jerks like this guy but what he could not understand was why no one was standing up for Naruto, they must have seen and they shouldn't be standing for this but when he looked around and saw that either people were either pretending not to see or were glaring at Naruto he was confused. Daiki looked back just on time to see the man 'mistakenly' step on Naruto's hand and then began to spout some nonsense about how Naruto had to pay for the squeezed packaged meat. Naruto said nothing but Daiki saw red and before anyone could stop him he had pushed the man down, grabbed his new friend's hand and was dragging him away.

"What are you doing?" Naruto asked while trying to get out of his grasp. "You're making it worse!"

"Come back here you brats! Come back here and apologise now!" the man screamed at them furiously.

"Like we will, you old fart!" Daiki screamed as he broke into a sprint pulling Naruto with him. He hated jerks like that, what he couldn't understand was why Naruto was standing for it.

* * *

><p>From atop a roof Phantom watched the scene with the old man and frowned in thought.<p>

"People like that- make me really angry." He said slowly as he watched Daiki pull Naruto away from the scenes. "Jerks need to be thought a lesson."

At the other side of the street he watched as a child cried for a balloon and his mother spoilt him by buying him one. If that child was in Uzumaki's position what would the people of Konoha had done?

He looked at the bright colour of the balloons dancing in the sun and all of a sudden he wanted one. After all he was a child and he had every right to be as fascinated with balloons as any other child. But firstly he needed some money- to the gambling halls then. With that thought he put on his white mask, turned into a blue smoke and was gone.

It was not till morning that people discovered the fat man, firmly bound in duct tape and floating in the air via many, many, many (did I mention that the balloons were a lot? Cause they were) brightly coloured balloons. The man had simply woken up in the morning and found himself in that state. Of course he was in a panic but could do nothing about it.

As several people pointed at the floating man and read his label: "When in doubt, use duct tape- it can fix anything. This announcement is brought to you by the Phantom- Nyah, Nyah, Nyah, Nyah, Nyah": the Phantom stood in the shadows surveying his work and playing with a roll of duct tape.

"My work here is done." He said smiling "And I've even got the souvenir photo to prove it." He smiled at the picture he held in his hand- the man had just woken up and realised where he was. He also had the tape recording of the man crying for his mummy and this was going to be broadcast over the radio.

"Time to go distribute these." And with that he was gone.

* * *

><p>"Naruto look at this!" Daiki cried, running into the room and waving a photo around.<p>

Naruto yawned as he watched Daiki approach. Even though it was near impossible he felt like he was coming down with something. His head ached, his body felt heavy and he was constantly tired- damn he felt horrible!

In his hurry Daiki tripped over the stairs but soon stood back up and continued running towards Naruto even ignoring Ai's call of 'baka'.

"Look!" he said shoving the photo in his friends face.

Naruto took one look at the picture and groaned. He knew what was coming next.

"Alright everyone take a sit." Kaya said as she came in with their new female trainee assistant teacher behind her. She looked around at the room and as she caught Naruto's eyes she gave him a small smile. "Naruto looks like you have a couple of visitors in the admin office."

Naruto threw his head back and groaned in annoyance before leaving his seat. He could guess who his visitors were if the pictures Daiki showed him were anything to go by.

"Good luck." Kaya whispered to him as he passed by giving him an encouraging smile.

Naruto returned a small smile before he left the room.

Naruto walked to his favourite spot in the school in a daze. This morning had been full of shouting and accusations that had caused the glares to increase and had left him even more drained. He did not want to deal with all this right now when he felt so bad, why couldn't they understand that?

He growled in frustration as the words from the morning came back to him. The man had in very clear tones accused Naruto of being the culprit, then had tried to alter the story to make it seem like Naruto was at fault and when Naruto had tried to defend himself he was loudly accused of being a liar and the man had made a dig at his lack of parents.

After that the hokage had very icily ordered the man to leave his office. Then he and Naruto had a chat in which the old man clearly pointed out that all the victims of the pranks had been people whom Naruto had a grudge against- well all except Ko.

Naruto had steadfastly denied his involvement in it but he could see the Hokage's point. It didn't help that Naruto remembered his meeting with Ko had happened just before Ko was pranked.

After that he had gone back home, taken a pain killer for his headache and just laid on his bed for an hour thinking of nothing.

"Naruto! Naruto!" a loud voice called to him and Naruto was momentarily brought out of his trance as Daiki approached him. "You're not eating?"

Naruto looked down at his unopened lunch box for a long time before he actually opened it up and began to eat. It was just a couple of sandwiches with nothing but a bit of ham in the middle- a poor fare. Naruto had slept in again and had not had time to make a proper meal.

"That's all you're gonna eat?" Daiki's tone was incredulous "Even Ai eats more than that." He pointed out. For as long as he had been in the class with Ai, she had always brought a small dainty lunch box that he was surprised she could survive on.

Then his eyes were drawn from Naruto's meal as he put his nose in the air to sniff at something. "Hm?" He slowly got up from his cross legged position on the floor and stretched before stealthily and casually walked to the tree that seemed to mark the beginning of Naruto's little world.

"Aha! Got ya!" he said triumphantly as he tightly grasped the upper arm of the small figure, which 'eeeked' as he surprised it, behind the tree and dragged it out. "Who are you and what do you want?" he questioned looking into the figures frightened face.

"Hinata?" Naruto sounded surprised to see her.

"Uhm. Uhm-" she looked like a rabbit caught in headlights.

"You know her?" Daiki asked. "Oh then, sorry about that, thought you were…" what exactly had he thought she was? "If you're here to see Naruto then go straight ahead." He said as he retook his former position.

"Uhm." She repeated. She was so nervous she was shaking like a leaf. Then all of a sudden she became half as she bowed from the waist down holding a lunch box out to Naruto like some kind of offering. "Ifyoudon'tmindyoucanhavethislunchbox!" she got out in one long breath.

Naruto and Daiki were stunned at the offer.

"That's yours right? And probably your only one" Naruto finally spoke. "If that's the case then you should eat you're going to need the energy."

"N-n-no, its o-okay." She shot up and looked at him before quickly turning her eyes to the ground. "I'm going to b-be alright. I-I am really grateful to you f-for saving m-me the other day. S-so i-if th-there's anything…" her voice trailed off slowly and her face was bright red.

Daiki looked between her and Naruto. They both looked super troubled. Daiki normally wasn't one for tact but that didn't mean he didn't have any. Sometimes that was the only thing that saved him in a clan of extremely ferocious females. Hinata- or whatever her name was- was obviously nervous and would probably be really disappointed if Naruto refused the offer because she wanted to show her gratitude. Naruto could obviously tell this and was troubled because the small girl needed her food and yet he didn't want to make her feel down.

Aha, that was it! "How about we split the lunches three ways? We can share all three meals amongst ourselves."

At that moment Naruto was extremely grateful for Daiki's presence, "Is that okay with you two?" Daiki continued.

"Yes." Naruto said.

"Y-yes." Hinata managed to stutter out.

With that they all placed their meals in the centre and sat down around it, saying a quick and enthusiastic 'Itadakimasu!' before they began to eat.

"Thank you, both of you." Naruto said beaming at them.

"What are friends for? Right Hinata?" he replied.

At first she seemed surprised to be referred to as their friend but afterwards she quickly nodded, a small shy smile plastered on her face.

"I'll treat you guys to some dango for lunch tomorrow. That is if you don't mind coming here again?" he said to the shy Hyuuga because he knew that she would not be allowed to stay around him outside of school.

She shook her head furiously "I w-will c-come. If you guys don't mind me intruding on you." She said quietly as she twiddled her two fore fingers.

"Why should we mind?" Daiki asked in place of Naruto "You're welcome to come here anytime you want."

"Seconded." Naruto added at the end and Hinata couldn't and didn't want to stop the small smile on her face.

"You know what else friends are here for?" Daiki asked slyly. The smile faded from Naruto's face and Hinata looked at him curiously.

"To know what kind of trouble their friends are getting into so early in the morning."

Naruto looked at him for a moment then shook his head in resignation "They thought I was the one that pulled all the recent pranks." He told them, his voice carrying all of his annoyance.

"But you didn't, it was that phantom guy." Daiki said, his eyebrows furrowed in thought.

Hinata was all ears. After those Hyuugas had been pranked the previous day everyone in the Hyuuga compound knew exactly who 'Phantom' was- well not his identity but his name.

"I know that and you know that but they don't. They believe that I'm Phantom." Daiki opened his mouth to protest but Naruto spoke again "Especially since all the victims are people that I have a reason to hold a grudge against."

That made Daiki keep quiet and Hinata unconsciously sat straighter. Naruto had a grudge against Ko? Was that why the air between Naruto and Ko had been so cold on that day? Yes, she had noticed it but had felt that maybe it was her imagination. What had happened between the two of them to make the air so cold? The three of them ate in silence for a while, each person with his own thoughts, before the silence was broken by Daiki.

"So all the victims are people you dislike?" he said more to himself than Naruto.

"More like people that have given me a reason to dislike them recently." Naruto answered his half question.

Once again Hinata had to wonder what exactly Ko had done.

"So what are you going to do? This Phantom guy may be defending you from those people. Maybe he's a fan like me and he's annoyed with those people." Even as he said it he realised how weird it sounded but it was a probability.

"It doesn't help if it gets me into trouble." Naruto snapped and Daiki kept quiet.

He knew Naruto was not angry with him. He could tell Naruto was stressed. If Naruto's reaction the previous day was anything to go by then it was clear he did not want to be associated with any of this.

Daiki kept silent then asked Naruto about the book he had bought the previous day.

"That's right!" Naruto said. He removed his sealing scroll and unsealed a book so big Hinata had to gasp.

"I had the same reaction yesterday." Daiki grinned at her and she caught herself and blushed.

Naruto ignored the two of them as he opened to a page he had bookmarked. Soon they were all occupied in marvelling over the incredibly interesting weapons in the book. Subject successfully changed.

In a shadow, completely undetected, Phantom, looking like a ghost- blue and see through- sat down watching them.

"He reacted. Heh." He was incredibly amused. "I guess it helps that he's already so cranky. And what's wrong with being mistaken as me? As far as I can see it's an honour." He smiled a knowing little smile "Well, sorry Naruto but I'm not going anywhere till my mission is completed. I wonder how long it will take…" with that completely faded away.

Naruto looked up from his book momentarily, to glance at where Phantom had been a moment ago. For some reason he felt that someone had been watching and a little part of his brain told him exactly who it was.

* * *

><p>"What tha?" Naruto stood facing the hokage mountain completely shocked, half on the verge of laughter and half frustrated. He knew what was coming next:<p>

"3, 2, 1…"

"Naruto Uzumaki please come with us." The leader of the three chuunin that appeared before him stated.

"I should have stayed in bed." Sighing was a bad habit normally, even more so for a young child.

On the mountain the second hokage had a hand up his nose, the first was scolding him, and the third was sticking out his tongue at the fourth who had a black eye and a missing tooth.

Under the mountain was painted: The Phantom's opinion on what the fourth should look like, I'm sure Naruto Uzumaki agrees. 'Naruto Uzumaki' had been highlighted so it was even more noticeable than the rest of the text.

"He's obviously challenging you!" Daiki exclaimed as he munched on a dango stick during lunch- Naruto had been true to his word. "So what are you going to do?" he asked as he finished the current stick and moved on to the next one.

"What should I do?" Naruto asked exasperatedly.

He had been thoroughly drilled at the Hokage's office that morning. Questions about why his name was there and if he knew who the Phantom was and why the Phantom knew who he was? All that stuff.

"This calls for a prank war. I mean he must want you to fight for your territory and so far he must be puzzled that you haven't come to run him off yet." He finished yet another stick and began on the next "Don't you agree Hinata?"

"Uhm." She said quietly and looked from one boy to the other.

"You heard Ai, didn't you?" Daiki continued before she could think of a reply. "Everyone thinks you're his accomplice and now even if Phantom should sign his name or come out in the open and show himself, everyone is still going to think you're his partner!"

Naruto knew that what Daiki was saying was true and before the end of the week he had been into the Hokage's office so many times you might have thought he was working there.

A man that was electrocuted when he put his hand on the knob of his front door; a shop owner whose shop floor had been waxed so perfectly it made a wonderful slippery slide; A teachers lounge that had been giving an exciting rainbow makeover via an exploding toy car; and so many others it was ridiculous.

"I have a migraine." Naruto said as he sat in the small target practice field at the back of their school on Friday afternoon after classes. Not only was he tired of all of Phantom's pranks, he had found himself feeling more and more tired throughout the week- like he was being drained of his energy.

Hinata shot him a sympathetic look while Daiki snorted.

"It wouldn't be so bad if you just got rid of Phantom once and for all."

Naruto had to agree. At first he had wanted to wait for Leah to return before he did anything but this was getting bad.

"Fine then," he groused "Show yourself Phantom! I know you know I want to talk to you so come out!"

Daiki was startled by Naruto suddenly calling out like that "What are you doing?" he asked.

"If Phantom always knows when someone offends me then that means that he must have a way of watching me, so he ought to be able to hear me."

"What?" Daiki seemed struck "First you're avoiding this topic and shying away from facing him and all of a sudden without any preparation you're calling him out. Not only is it unlike you but it's also going to cost us the battle!"

"What battle?" Naruto asked "I have no intention of going up against him in a prank war. I just want to find out why he's so eager to get me in trouble."

"So you're not-?"

"I have no plans to. Did you ever think that actually engaging in a war with him would give people more of a bad opinion of me?"

"Heh. What a good wittle boy. So conscious of being good and impressing everybody. How I so admire you." The last part of that could be mistaken as nothing but the obvious mockery it was.

They all turned and watched as blue smoke floated down and solidified until it was a boy. Naruto felt as if his body was suddenly even weaker than it had been a minute ago. He wanted all this to be over so he could go home and sleep.

Hello kiddies." He greeted with a wide Cheshire cat like grin.

They were silent as all three of the academy students studied him. Finally Daiki spoke:

"Who are you? And why do you seem like you're trying to get Naruto into trouble?" he asked the figure that stood some way in front of he, Hinata and Naruto. Of course he knew it was Phantom, he just wanted to know who Phantom was- his real identity.

The figure was around the same height as Naruto. He had long, vibrant red hair that was spiky and fell over his silver eyes in a way that was not dorky. He wore a white shirt, baggy pants and a belt with a white faceless mask clipped onto it. Over these he wore a long black jacket which was made of a light material and reached to his ankles; it was unzipped and lined with red.

"Isn't it obvious?" he asked with a condescending smirk "I'm phantom- the greatest prankster Konoha has ever known!"

"What are you talking about? That title is Naruto's and mine- soon enough!" Now he was even more convinced that this guy was trying to draw Naruto into some kind of prank war. If that was it then Daiki was ready.

"Is that so?" Phantom asked with a smile that irritated Daiki to no end.

His hand reached for his belt and the three that stood opposite of him tensed. Phantom seemed to see this and smirked, irritating Daiki again. It was official- Daiki did not like this guy. Phantom pulled up his mask and put it on. Naruto was immediately on high alert- the mask and the movement were familiar. So familiar it was scary. It may not have been the tail of the Kyuubi putting the mask onto his face but that was the scene that flashed before him and Naruto knew what was coming next.

He watched as the faceless mask began to morph until it seemed to become the Phantom's face or… his own? The three ninja in training were struck. He had expected Phantom's face to change but he was not expecting his own face to show up.

"That's your face-?" Daiki whispered uncertainly to a white faced Naruto who all of a sudden felt drained.

"Now I'm Naruto, any queries?" Phantom said with a cheeky grin but his opponents were speechless "None I presume." He said with a spring with his voice "As for your second question: Naruto is already to blame for every other thing right? Might as well pin this on him too." and at this he sent Naruto a look full of mockery.

Naruto narrowed his eyes at him but it was Hinata that spoke.

"Y-you coward!"

"Yeah, take blame for your own actions!" Daiki agreed; Naruto said nothing.

Phantom stopped his staring contest with Naruto and placed that infuriating smile back on his face as he replied.

"I am and I assure you I will."

With that he turned into blue smoke and disappeared.

Daiki turned to Naruto, ready to begin his rant but before he could say anything Naruto spoke abruptly "Let's go." And without waiting for a reply, turned and began to leave.

Daiki and Hinata exchanged a look that relayed all their questions and concerns but said nothing as they turned and followed him.

Naruto was sure of it; that Phantom guy was trying to irritate him. Into doing what exactly? That he didn't know. In that look full of mockery Naruto had seen irritation and annoyance but it wasn't directed at him alone. He had also seen sadness. Why was Phantom sad? What reason did he have?

"…Naruto is already to blame for every other thing right? Might as well pin this on him too."

With that one sentence he had realised that Phantom knew of the Kyuubi, all of a sudden his suspicion about the prank played on the Hokage Mountain was answered- Phantom understood the sort of annoyance he felt at the fourth hokage.

Who was that jerk and what right did he have to seal the nine tails into him while he went off and died like a hero leaving Naruto to face all the bad consequences? What right did he have to take away Naruto's face and seal him in the shadow of the Kyuubi- just like it was in his dream? What freaking right did he have to leave Naruto to a life where he had to constantly prove himself and be…?

"Argh!" he wanted to slam his head against something as he felt all the original anger come right back to him. The anger he felt on that night when he had accidentally stumbled onto the cage of the nine tailed fox while he was trying to reach the fourth level of sleep.

When He had come out he had at first been distraught, shedding tears that he had told himself, on entering the academy, that he would not shed. At first the tears had been of shock, of sadness, of confusion, of fear.

Then as he thought about it he had felt anger at the fourth hokage who had done this to him. Who had made him a pariah right from birth, who was the reason people glared at him and called him names and wished he would fail or be injured or maybe even dead and were generally unkind to him. At this point he would have liked nothing more than to lash out at his hero both verbally and physically- make him look just like the image Phantom had put on the mountain.

He had understood a little why the hokage had done what he did- his life and the life of one child were not worth as much as the life of the village. Right now he felt like he had been sucker punched- how much was his life really worth?

He turned sharply on his heel and faced his friends who had been silent while he was thinking "Don't follow me." He said before he turned and began to walk away.

The other two were stunned both by his manner and his words.

"His face was really white." Hinata said quietly and Daiki nodded in agreement.

That night, while he had so many mixed feelings, Leah had confidently told him that she believed in him, that he wasn't the nine tailed fox, that she could see that and eventually he could make other people see it.

From that day he had tried to… he had tried to change himself. He had stopped playing pranks- it seemed like something the fox would do. He had started sealing his anger into himself afraid that lashing out would make people compare him to the fox. He tried to be good and where did that get him? As far as he was concerned the people were just as bad as they had been. He had tried to earn their trust to prove to them that he was not the Kyuubi or anything like the Kyuubi.

"Why won't they just believe it?" he shouted to the sky.

He was mad at them too. Didn't they know that? Didn't they know that he was mad at them for believing he was the Kyuubi even if they didn't know better? Maybe the civilians but the Shinobi that treated him as badly as the civilians were just-

"Argh!" he screamed at the top of his lungs "Forget Konoha! You stupid, stupid, stupid bunch of jerks! You stupid jerks! You stupid jerks! You frigging stupid jerks! I think you suck! You're definitely all a bunch of jerks for making me so angry. You suck, you suck, you suck! You suck even more than broccoli and that's saying something! In fact that's probably the understatement of the year you big, fat, stupid, mean bunch of jerks!" he stopped for the moment a little out of breath. He felt so drained and tired: so, so tired.

He stood there for a moment panting before he became aware of someone standing at the edge of his vision watching him.

"You done?" she asked smiling at him.

* * *

><p>"Is that so?" Kaya asked, after listening to him rant till he was out of breathe, giving the swing another push. Naruto held on tightly to ropes. The motion as the swing moved back and forth, sometimes higher, sometimes lower, was calming to his frazzled nerves.<p>

"So let me see if I have this straight: You're mad at the people of Konoha because they treat you like a criminal when you've done nothing wrong; You're mad at yourself because you're not sure who you are and sometimes you wish you were someone else; you're mad at yourself because even though you're trying really hard to prove yourself you feel like you're not moving forward; and last of all you're mad at yourself because you feel like a coward: am I right?" she asked ticking off the points on her finger.

"Mmhm." Naruto affirmed. That was it right? He couldn't tell her how much he wanted to hit fourth Hokage for sealing that thing into him. For now, the fact that he knew of the Kyuubi was a secret.

Kaya gave a sigh wondering how to comfort the small boy. As someone who had studied psychology she was fully aware that sometimes people just did not hit on the problem. They talked and talked trying to make you better and at the end you gave them a little smile saying: 'Thank you, I feel better': while you felt as crappy as you did before you talked to them.

She guessed that the source of his frustration was probably the newly emerged prankster, 'Phantom', as he called himself. She knew that Naruto was getting a lot of the blame for Phantom's little pranks and he probably felt that it was not fair because he had been trying so hard to be good for so many months.

If not for Phantom he would probably be really happy right now. For the first two years of his life Naruto had not talked to his classmates who apart from being older than him had been discouraged by their parents from talking to him. Now he was having talks with the Akimichis about food; being cuddled by Ai Yamanaka who felt he was the cutest thing since hello kitty; being good naturedly teased by both Amaya Uchiha and Yoshiki Nara; and having fun filled lunches with Daiki Inuzuka and the little Hyuuga heiress- Hinata Hyuuga: being the kind of person he was, Naruto was probably beyond thrilled at making new friends- he was a friendly little guy and being isolated must have hurt a lot.

That was it!

"Hm," she began, choosing her words carefully, "Let's begin from the last problem: why do you feel like a coward?"

"Because I feel like I'm running away. Somewhere in my mind I don't like being so powerless. I don't like being so weak and having to- you know?" he said exasperatedly and she nodded in understanding.

"I think I understand."

"When I wanted to be hokage I knew what I wanted and I knew what I had to do it. I had to become the best. Even though I disrupted class back then- with every lesson I learnt I felt like I had moved forward and was closer to my dream. But no matter what I do right now I feel like I'm moving backwards and I'm always afraid that no matter what I do they will always-" think I'm the Kyuubi "hate me."

"Hm is that so?" she said "I see. And you don't want them to hate you?"

"No!"

"Why? Why don't you want them to hate you? Why do you want to prove yourself to them?"

"Because- because-" I don't want them to hate me? I don't want them looking at me with those eyes that make me feel lonely? Lonely? That was it! He didn't want to feel like he didn't exist- he wanted to be acknowledged by them. At that thought Daiki's words flashed across his mind:

'What are friends for?'

"I, I, I didn't want them rejecting me with their eyes, I didn't like being so lonely. I really, really wanted to be acknowledged and feel like I actually belonged."

Kaya heard a small sound coming from somewhere around the trees.

"You didn't want to feel lonely?" even as she asked that she felt a twinge of guilt in her heart.

"Yes."

"Are you lonely?"

Naruto hesitated. Flashes of Daiki's smiling face or Hinata offering him her bento that day and still hanging out around him even though it was obvious she wasn't supposed to or Ai baking cupcakes especially for him, even now Kaya sensei was patiently listening to him. They might be few but there were people that accepted him.

When he didn't answer she smiled softly to herself "I noticed Naruto that you seem to have people right now who are precious to you and accept you. You would do anything for them right?"

Naruto nodded without hesitation. For the few friends he had made he would go the distance. "Definitely."

"As an adult," she began "I've learnt that I don't really care what others think about me. To me what matters are what I think of myself and what those who truly care about me think of me- it doesn't mean I disregard everyone else it just means that if I'm being me and they hate it, if they hate me for just existing, then well-" she stopped as she tried to think of an appropriate way to put it "then well, they can go suck lemons- the sourest lemons they can find."

"Mmhm!" Naruto agreed, nodding his head sharply.

"I heard this story once. Would you like to hear it?"

"Yes, please." He said politely.

A man and his son were once going with their donkey to market. As they were walking along by his side a countryman passed them and said, "You fools, what is a donkey for but to ride upon?" So the man put the boy on the donkey, and they went on their way.

But soon they passed a group of men, one of whom said, "See that lazy youngster, he lets his father walk while he rides."

So the man ordered his boy to get off, and got on himself. But they hadn't gone far when they passed two women, one of whom said to the other, "Shame on that lazy lout to let his poor little son trudge along."

Well, the man didn't know what to do, but at last he took his boy up before him on the donkey. By this time they had come to the town, and the passers-by began to jeer and point at them. The man stopped and asked what they were scoffing at.

The men said, "Aren't you ashamed of yourself for overloading that poor donkey of yours - you and your hulking son?"

The man and boy got off and tried to think what to do. They thought and they thought, until at last they cut down a pole, tied the donkey's feet to it, and raised the pole and the donkey to their shoulders. They went along amid the laughter of all who met them until they came to a bridge, when the donkey, getting one of his feet loose, kicked out and caused the boy to drop his end of the pole. In the struggle the donkey fell over the bridge, and his forefeet being tied together, he was drowned.

"The lesson of the story is that if you try to please everyone then you please no one- yourself included. You understand?"

"Yes." Naruto said. He already felt so much better after talking to her- probably because she had made him realised that he was no longer alone and because she let him vent out all his frustrations without judging him.

"I always used to pride myself of being a fair judge," she went on, "for me, those who judged others based on rumours were fools- I felt I was above that." By now the swing was no longer moving but instead Kaya was now leaning heavily on the ropes and looking off into space "In fact, I was so sure I was above that till I met a little boy," Naruto looked up at her and she smiled down at him "this little boy was the youngest one in my class. Younger than everyone else by at least two years."

"Me?" he asked though it was clear who it was. She turned her face down to face him and gave him a smile full of laughter and sadness but instead of answering she just ruffled his hair and continued to speak.

"I always loved little children because they were lively but whenever this particular little fellow pulled a prank I was always irked. One day this small boy suddenly became quiet and seemed even more mature than his older classmates and I began to worry and feel guilty so I decided to go and speak to him. I did it once, then I did it again and again and again and do you know what I realised about his true self?"

"What?" he was curious to know.

"That apart from being friendly and creative he was also a real sweetheart and even then never expected anything."

Naruto blushed at the compliment and she chuckled and ruffled his hair again.

"I knew his real self that was kind and considerate and really like a child. But very few people had realised this about him because they were too busy listening to the rumours. I was very glad that I had taken that first step and gone to talk to him. I'm sure that if you keep being yourself that others will soon realise this as well."

"You really think so?"

"Absolutely! Just take it one step at a time, there's no need to rush right? Keep being you- hold on to your good intentions and be patient with those people that don't know any better than to listen to rumours and be jerks. Humans are like that, so illogical, can't do anything with them. I really fear for our future." She said shaking her head as he had often seen her do when dealing with a particularly difficult child.

He chuckled and she continued, "They call themselves grownups but they never really grow up."

"Like the guy that went up with the balloons and was crying for his mum. I would like to try that some time."

"So would I." Kaya agreed smiling.

"So you won't hate me if I pull a prank in your class?" he asked cheekily.

"As long as you don't hate me for giving you detention." She returned with a smirk.

"Thank you very much sensei." He said and stood on the swing so he could give her a hug which she returned without hesitation.

"Now," she said, all serious again "How about we get some chocolate cake and a milk shake?"

"Yes." He said jumping down from the seat which caused it to rock slightly and made his sensei cuff him on the head for being reckless.

Naruto gave her a sheepish grin as he picked up her file which she had left on one of the bushes.

"Your friends can come along as well." She said in a suggestive tone that made him look at her "Yes, I know you two are there." She said sternly.

Daiki suddenly rushed out from behind one of the trees and threw one arm around the boy's shoulder "Wow, I always thought you were short, I never guessed you were younger than me. Doesn't that mean you should address me more respectfully?"

"Uh huh," Naruto said in a tone of disregard.

Hinata watched their little interaction and was glad. When Naruto had gone off on his own she and Daiki had been worried so they followed him. Naruto was so lost in thought that he didn't hear them- though they had been being really quiet.

What had made him look so frustrated exactly? Different emotions had passed over his face, none of them good, and the he had suddenly stopped and started ranting against Konoha. Why Konoha? Why not Phantom? She hadn't understood until they heard what he was talking about with Kaya. So that was why?

"That's why he was so anxious to not do anything bad. Man I'm a terrible friend." Daiki had said more to himself than to her. She felt terrible as well. She had been enjoying being a part of their little group, weren't friends supposed to see things like that?

When Naruto had said he felt lonely Daiki had wanted to shout out in annoyance and only her quick reflexes had saved them from being discovered.

As Naruto continued his talk with his sensei he had become happier and happier until he was downright chirpy. She was glad. Really, really glad.

"Oi, what was that?" Daiki said in a mock annoyed tone as he rubbed the top of Naruto's head roughly with one fist and held Naruto in place by putting his other arm around his neck.

This was good. As she watched them she giggled. She knew that this was Daiki's way of showing Naruto support. What could she do for him? She didn't have the courage to be close to Naruto like Daiki. She didn't even have the confidence to say she ranked as one of his precious people and she didn't have the confidence to ask him, though she really wanted to.

"Ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, that hurts, Daiki."

"Psst." A quiet call that only she heard as Naruto and Daiki were too busy playing around. She turned to the source of the noise and saw Kaya beckoning to her. When she realised what the teacher was doing she giggled again and began following her.

"Thank you for being Naruto's friend." The sensei whispered as they snuck away and Hinata nodded. She was proud to be his friend. She had witnessed first-hand those qualities about Naruto that Kaya san had mentioned.

"That's Daiki sama little Naru chan." He said.

When they were quite someway ahead Kaya turned back and called to them:

"You two keep goofing off and you don't get any snacks."

The two boys immediately stopped what they were doing and ran to catch up with their sensei, both of them protesting at being left behind.

Hinata was happy as they all walked away. She was even more elated when Naruto quietly whispered to them words that she treasured above all others.

"Thank you for worrying about me. I consider you two my best friends in the whole world."

"Seconded!" Daiki said loudly.

"Thirded." She said, though she was fairly sure that it was not a word. But who cared, right now she was happy and this moment was all that mattered.

* * *

><p>Naruto was lying on his back a few days after he had talked to Kaya and had gone into his subconscious to confront Phantom. After examining all the signs it was obvious who Phantom really was he had just been too stressed to notice it. After the talk Naruto had decided that Phantom was not that bad and before he knew it they were both snickering over Naruto's past pranks and planning a prank so great that the whole of Konoha would be shocked speechless.<p>

Right now phantom sat at the feet of the bed as they both waited for the return of someone that was critical to their plot.

"I'm back Naruto!" Leah's voice sang out as a sand portal appeared in his bedroom "And I brought a ton of snacks."

Leah stepped out of the portal in full form and surveyed the room looking for Naruto. She found him sitting on the bed doing nothing and at the foot of the bed was a Character reading a book she didn't recognise…

Wait. Back up a bit. When did she teach Naruto the practical of summoning characters?

Some minutes later they all at the kitchen table each with a juice box and Leah listened to what the two had to say. During the discussion her expression had gone from stern, to alarmed and furious, to worried, back to alarmed, then to irritation- a which point she hit both Naruto and Phantom over their heads, then back to calm and then happy.

"So what exactly was your mission and why was it so important that you had to be created and endanger Naruto's life?" she asked Phantom after Naruto gave her a description of his week.

"Naruto was scared, uncertain and angry. Well except the third one and the first two would have been okay if it hadn't been causing him to be stuck in this unhappy point of his life and giving strength to a certain NS that the others think will be better left of weak." Leah turned to him sharply and Naruto looked at him curiously, but Phantom either pretending not to notice their looks or actually oblivious to them continued talking and neither Naruto nor Leah made him stop. "I was created from Naruto's wish that he could be someone else, someone that no one recognised or hated and who could be themselves without worry. It was such a strong, unconscious wish that I was born. My mission was to defend Naruto and help him somehow to regain who he was- someone that may be uncertain of who he was but that kept moving forward regardless of it."

"I had full access to all his memories so I looked through all of them and I found out that even though it was a form of escape, he really loved to prank people. It was in his blood." Here he grinned at Naruto "So I decided that I would do my best to lure Naruto into a prank war. Maybe if he got back into pranking he would remember how much fun he had and who he used to be. That was my plan. It didn't work out perfectly but it's all right in the end." Phantom finished triumphantly.

Leah shook her head at him then turning to Naruto she hugged him tightly. "I'm sorry for not being here when you needed me."

"It's okay," Naruto said as he hugged her back. "I'm just happy you're back." Then he pulled away enough so he could look her in the face. "Actually, there is something I would like you to do."

Leah quirked an eyebrow at him, "Whatever do you want?" she asked in a playful tone.

The look that crossed the two boys faces after she said that was enough to ensure her of worrisome times ahead.

* * *

><p>Two weeks later Naruto stood on the Hokage Mountain waiting for his two best friends and one special guest to show up. The first person to arrive was Daiki who greeted Naruto as enthusiastically as ever. Then a few minutes later Hinata showed up puffing and panting.<p>

"Now that we are all here," he said before they could ask any questions. "Phantom, may you please show yourself?"

At the mention of the name Phantom, Daiki stood up at staring around warily.

A blue smoke wafted in and soon it reformed into the boy they all recognised as Phantom.

"'sup." He greeted with a cheeky grin that turned even cheekier as he faced Daiki.

"What's he doing here?" Daiki questioned, glaring daggers at the boy.

"Meet Phantom, my first Character." He announced triumphantly.

"What?" The look on the face of his two friends told him they had not understood him even a little.

"A character." He repeated then leaned in conspiratorially and both his friends without really thinking, did the same "I have a power that no one but my guardian knows about." They both waited, both curious and excited to hear about his power, as Naruto took a pause for dramatic effect. "The power," he said, purposely drawing it out "is the ability to bring things I think of to reality."

They both looked up, a little confused.

Naruto pointed at Phantom and said "He was created by me and to stay alive he is feeding of my chakra and life force, hence the reason why I have felt terrible recently."

"What?" Daiki asked again. The two of them got the main drift but somehow it felt like their minds were blank.

"When I think of something in my mind, I can make it real. When I make a living thing from my mind, it is called a character."

"So you can make anything you want come alive?" Daiki was really excited at this revelation.

"More or less but because it takes a lot of chakra and sometimes my life force if I'm not careful I could die."

Both Daiki and Hinata understood that word. Didn't that make creating them dangerous?

"Before you say anything, all ninja techniques have risks involved and the chances that I will die from using this particular aspect of my power are very little."

"Hallo, hallo, what's all this then?" a familiar voice asked before Naruto felt Leah's arms, still slightly grainy from her sand teleportation technique, wrap around his neck.

Leah took one look at the surprised faces of the children and the one character before her.

"This," he said, gesturing to the white haired woman that held him "is Leah, she's my guardian who is teaching me he how to use my powers."

"Hello kiddies." Leah greeted with a smile "You're Daiki and Hinata right? Naruto's told me a lot about you guys. Thank you very much for taking care of my little Naruto while I was away."

"Nah, it was fun." Daiki said.

"N- nice to meet you Leah- san. A-and it's a p-pleasure being friends with Naruto." Hinata said. In the past weeks her stuttering had decreased though it had not disappeared and at times it came back in full force.

"So," Leah said loudly "Am I right in supposing you did not call your friends here just to introduce them to Phantom?" she finished with a smirk

The character and his creator exchanged a grin before Phantom spoke up "Anyone here like orange soda?"

Daiki and Hinata exchanged looks as little apple like characters appeared in Phantom's hand. They weren't sure where this was going but judging from the look on the faces of Naruto, Leah and Phantom they were sure it was going to be something troublesome.

"Count me in." Daiki said before even listening to their idea.

Hinata was not as forward as Daiki but if both Naruto and Daiki were in she did not want to be left out.

* * *

><p>The hokage sat in his office absentmindedly staring into space. This week had been hectic with all the pranks this Phantom fellow had pulled; they had been even more than previously. Naruto had been in his office so often that it sometimes seemed liked he lived there but unlike three weeks ago the boy did not seem very irritated every time he came. The pranks were definitely not pulled by Naruto but they were linked to him.<p>

He felt sorry for the boy. But more than sorry he was worried. Every time Naruto came into his office he looked paler than before, more tired, like he had in the days when he had nightmares.

Oh he knew about Naruto's nightmares and he had tried his best to help Naruto but nothing he tried had worked and he had been forced to watch helplessly as the life had been drained from the eyes of the boy he considered his grandson.

This time when he had watched as Naruto become paler he had been determined to stop the cause- Phantom.

That of course had seemed like what he should be doing until he received a letter this very sunny morning that read:

Hey old man,

Today we are going to pull a prank of epic proportions, the like of which Konoha has never seen and probably will never see again. We suggest you evacuate the streets; we wouldn't want any casualties now, would we? We also suggest you tune into channel 55 on the radio for updates on all our movements.

Have a pleasantly orange day and stop us if you can,

Naruto Uzumaki and Phantom.

He had been shocked and worried. Was this letter really from Naruto as well or was it just a trick? There was no time to debate that as he cleared the streets of all living things that he thought necessary and deployed any free ninjas to find either of the two boys. They hadn't had any success so far. He couldn't even find Naruto in his crystal ball. What cloaking technique were they using? It must be Phantom's technique, he was sure Naruto did not know any technique so advanced it could avoid his glass eye (nope, not Phantom; all hail Leah and her awesome weaver powers ^_^)

"Hokage sama!" a voice called urgently at his door "You must come and see this."

The third broke away from his reverie and followed the worker to the entrance of the Hokage tower.

"Hey, hey, hey welcome to orange day sponsored by the Phantom." The voice from the radio broadcasting tower spoke just as he reached the entrance. "My name is Daiki Inuzuka, I'm your host and I'll be hijacking this channel to keep you up to speed with this orange day." Daiki continued on like he had heard radio hosts doing.

He was going to be in trouble when he got home but it was totally worth it.

"Now I wouldn't advise you to come looking for me, 'cause you won't find me anyway. So just stay seated and enjoy this broadcast. Now that you're all relaxed look to your feet where you can see the beginning of a prank brought to you by both Naruto Uzumaki and the Phantom. Now is the time for you to close any windows you might have left open, bring in any laundry you might have left hanging and get off the streets."

The hokage looked to his feet and noticed an orange gooey substance flowing up out of little spiral seals. The substance looked oddly familiar and he bent to one knee and stuck his fore finger in it. The bringing it up to eye level he examined it closely, rubbed his fore finger and thumb together and tasted it.

"It's sugar!" he said incredulously.

"For those of you on the streets," Daiki continued "I suggest you get in your houses and close your doors or if you're brave enough grab an empty trash can with a tight lid and some eye and ear holes and place yourselves on the street for a bit of a thrill. Right now enjoy this song 'PoPiPo' by Miku Hatsune of the Volcaloids. I'm Daiki Inuzuka and I'll be your host for the next hour."

With that the Inuzuka was gone and the afore mentioned song began to play.

For the next fifty five minutes Daiki Inuzuka either commented on things- like what ice cream should be tried; what café should be visited; how popcorn should be made and what games must be played: things like that- or played songs. Then five minutes before the hour was up he came back on. For as far at the third could see, the streets of Konoha had been paved by now hardened orange sugar.

"Hello people of the city. You know me and if you're only just tuning in then once again the name is Daiki Inuzuka. I hope that you're either glued to you windows and screen doors watching, in your secured trash cans or on high ground where you can get the best view and remain untouched. Five minutes is almost up you may now look up to the Hokage mountain if you can see it from your position. I hope you enjoyed Orange day brought to you by Naruto Uzumaki and Phantom. And for the final time I'm your host Daiki Inuzuka, signing out with 'My Town' by cartoon boyfriend."

With that he was gone and the song began to play. The hokage looked out from his office window and he saw orange begin to gush out from the mountains like when one shook a bottle of very fizzy soda before opening the bottle. Except this was more like several huge bottles. The orange stuff reared up like a wave and for a moment seemed to stay like that before covering all the streets of the city like a widely raging river. The momentum of its releases causing it to fully cover the streets before calming down and becoming a steady flowing stream. He now understood what the sugar was for. He completely understood why they called it orange day.

The old man groaned. This was going to be a lot of paper work.

In the background the words of the song 'My Town' blared on:

This is my town

The only time that you should come around

is if you're ready to see hell

then come on in and ring my bell

* * *

><p>And scene.<p>

Hello. Another chapter. Dang it took a long time to sort this chapter out. If you think the finishing prank was a bit excessive and undoable then remember that they had Leah and her crazy weaver powers on their side. I will probably try to read through this chapter over the week and straighten out the glitches. I advise you to check out the song 'My Town', it was one of the songs on home alone three and I love it. If you listen to it then you will understand why I chose it for this chapter.

The apple characters created by phantom contain chakra. The go and stand over the seals put all over Konoha by Phantom and Naruto and when it's time for the seal to work the dissolve and let their chakra float into it thus activating it.

I actually wanted to put up a small peek at Naruto's first C ranked mission which is two chapters away (the next chapter and then graduation before the C ranked mission) but I am too pooped after putting up this chapter. I was thinking of calling it 'Naruto in wonderland' and I already know what it is about. If you'll still like to see the small spoiler then tell me and I'll add it to the end of the next chapter.

I hope you enjoyed the chapter. See you next time.


	6. If I could

**DISCLAIMER:** I DO NOT OWN NARUTO. THIS IS A FANFIC.

**AN:**_FINALLY, IT'S DONE. HELLO EVERYONE I'M SORRY THAT THIS CHAPTER IS LATE I REALLY WANTED TO BRING IT OUT SOME DAYS EARLIER BUT A COMBINATION OF BUSYNESS, LAZYNESS AND WRITERS BLOCK STOPPED ME. ANYWAY IF YOU'VE STUCK WITH THIS STORY FOR THIS LONG THEN I MUST GIVE YOU MY THANKS, YOU SUPPORT WAS MUCH APPRECIATED. ANYWAY THIS IS THE LAST CHAPTER BEFORE NARUTO GRADUATES, IT WAS ORIGIINALLY SUPPOSED TO BE AN EXTRA SO I THOUGHT TYPING IT OUT WOULDN'T TAKE TIME (THAT WORKED OUT REALLY WELL FOR ME). ANYWAY, ENJOY THE CHAPTER AND ONCE MORE, THANK YOU FOR STICKING WITH THIS STORY TILL NOW. SEE YOU NEXT TIME._

**AN 2**_**:** OH AND LIKE I SAID THE LAST CHAPTER HAS BEEN EDITED THOUGH NOT MUCH CHANGED (I ONLY REALLY EDITED THE TIME LEAH ARRIVED BACK AND THE TIME BETWEEN NARUTO FINDING OUT WHO PHANTOM WAS AND PLAYING THE PRANK)_

* * *

><p>Naruto sat in his usual spot with Daiki sitting beside him as was the norm. Everything felt surreal; maybe it was because Daiki wasn't his usual laughing self. He wasn't telling Naruto one of the funny and highly amusing stories he always heard from unknown sources. Maybe it was because Kaya sensei was late for class by more than an hour- she was never late. Maybe it was because Ai, Amaya and Yoshiki were all strangely absent. Or maybe it was because there were only quiet whispers even though there was no teacher.<p>

Naruto looked up at the clock as the door opened and Kaya sensei walked in. It was 9:15am. There was something off about her apart from the fact that she looked tired. She didn't seem like Kaya sensei.

She turned to face the class and Naruto could see not just the bags under her eyes but also the pain reflected in them. Naruto's heart beat rapidly in expectation when the whole class became deadly silent and all looked at their sensei as they waited for something to happen.

"Is it true sensei? The incident at the Uchiha complex… Is Amaya really dead?" A girl asked, from her voice Naruto could tell she was on the verge of breaking down. The whole class seemed to be holding their breath and waiting for an answer.

"Yes." Kaya replied "Unfortunately Amaya will no longer be with us."

Naruto's eyes widened and his breath hitched in his throat. Was this some sort of a cruel joke? He looked over at Daiki but from the pained expression on his face he already knew the truth. In the background Naruto could hear the sobs of some female classmates but no one was saying anything.

It was 9:19am.

Naruto jerked up from his bed. The time on his alarm clock read 4:36am. His eyes were moist with unshed tears. That was a horrible dream, one he never wanted to have again. If only it were that simple, to simply wish for it and hope it would happen. But no, unfortunately it was more complicated than that because Naruto could tell that this was no ordinary dream- it was a dream that showed the future.

Naruto sat on his bed in a daze. Amaya was going to die? Why? He did not want that to happen, she was not even a ninja yet.

It was now almost a year since Naruto had played that 'Orange Day' prank along with his closest friends. Naruto and Daiki and even Phantom, before he disappeared, had all gone to the hokage to own up to the crime and make sure that Hinata was in no way mentioned or suspected. They had been forced to not only clean up the entire mess but also to pay for any damages- luckily there were very few. Daiki had also been punished by his clan.

After that day things had changed for Naruto. The civilian adults still glared at him but to Naruto who had once hated it he now felt more amused than sad and took their glares as them acknowledging that his prank was a job well done. Many of the adult shinobi, while they may still hate or fear him, felt grudging respect for a boy that had managed to pull such a grand prank without being caught- he could never tell them that it was because of Leah's help. The most drastic change though was the way the students now treated him. Many of them knew that the prank had been both irresponsible and dangerous and there were enough of them that felt that Naruto was just an annoying and immature troublemaker and treated him as such but there were also many of them who felt that the prank had been cool. The students who had formerly thought that Naruto was nothing but a stuck up teacher's pet were forced to reconsider their opinion of him and felt okay in approaching him to talk to him. With that one prank Naruto and Daiki had become pretty famous even with those in the higher and lower classes and as such they often found themselves being greeted by people they never even knew existed or insulted by people whom they very happily ignored.

Through it all Ai Yamanaka, Yoshiki Nara and Amaya Uchiha had remained their friends. The three girls who wanted to grow up, be put on the same team and show the world that females could be wonderful ninjas. Yoshiki was the brains; Amaya was the brawn; and Ai was the heart: they worked together in a way that made the teachers feel that they would be a very effective team in the future.

The first time that Amaya had directly spoken to Naruto was a couple of days after they were put in the same class. During the beginning of term accuracy evaluation when they had both tied in second place behind Kentaro with two of their kunai missing the bull's eye by a bit.

* * *

><p><strong>FLASHBACK<strong>

"Not bad for a kid, Uzumaki." She said coming up behind him.

"Thanks. You did pretty well yourself." Naruto said in reply.

"Of course," she said with a smirk "Though I still can't believe that not only did I lose to him," jerking a thumb over her shoulder to indicate Kentaro "but I also lost to you."

"Ano Amaya- san you didn't lose to me we tied."

"Of course I lost. I tied with a brat that's two years younger than I am." She told him like it was the most obvious thing in the world.

"I started training at the same time as you so we have the same years in experience. You shouldn't consider me to be younger than you." Naruto said. He had been trained like he was her age so it wasn't really that unbelievable that they were on the same level.

"You get extra training don't you?"

"How do you know?" he asked turning to face her. It was not a secret that he trained but he didn't think that anyone had ever seen him.

"Don't worry I'm not some kind of stalker."

"I never-"

"I saw you once or twice; you were breathing hard which showed that you had been training yourself pretty hard."

"Oh." was all he could say.

"In a sense we're alike aren't we?" she told him with a smirk. "Those idiots that only complain and say that we're only strong because we were lucky to be born 'elites', use that as their excuse to remain lazy. Idiots like that will never grow stronger because they're too busy whining to go do something about their incompetence." At the last part she shrugged. "They all seem to have forgotten the time when we were also struggling to hit the targets."

Naruto stared at her.

"What? Don't tell me that you also think that I'm only strong because I'm an Uchiha?" she asked.

"No, it's just somehow…"

"You think it's weird that I'm admitting right?" she asked "After all a quarter of an elite's strength does come from his pride."

He was a little unsure of that but nodded anyway.

"Yeah well Uzumaki that's okay because you already know the truth so telling you doesn't make any difference. Plus I like you- you're cool enough for a seven year old midget."

"Hey Amaya, what are you being so slow for? The sale will be over if we don't hurry." Ai shouted at her from the gate.

"See ya later." She said then without another word she turned and left him.

"Bye- bye Amaya- san." He called after her.

She just nodded her head.

**FLASHBACK END**

* * *

><p>From that day on she had spoken with him more often. She still seemed stuck up and arrogant but when she teased him there was never any ill intent behind it and she had, in her own way, stuck up for him more than once when someone had tried to belittle him and make him feel bad.<p>

Naruto did not want her to die. Not yet. Not when the three girls who had been his friends despite what anyone had said had not yet fulfilled their goal.

He was going to try to stop this but it would be hard because while the dream had told him that she died it had not told him how. He just knew that it was sometime soon.

Naruto got out of his bed knowing that he would not be going to sleep again. He went to his kitchen and put on some instant water for cup ramen.

"Are you okay?" Leah's familiar voice asked from across the kitchen. She was in mini form and was sitting on one of his counters leaning her back against the wall.

"No." he said straight forwardly, "It's impossible to not feel depressed after having that kind of dream, even if I'm going to do everything in my power to stop it."

Leah nodded but he didn't see it as he started slurping down his noodles. At that moment his mind was pulling up every memory of the dream and analysing it, trying to find a way to upset everything and prevent Amaya's death.

"I've got a mission today. I should be back sometime this evening or early tomorrow morning. Are you going to be alright on you own?" she asked.

Naruto nodded. After Naruto had mastered the first stage of his powers Leah had started going on missions again though she was rarely away for long periods. After the incident with Phantom she was almost never away and even when she was it was never for longer than a day. Usually she left at around the time he set out for school and was back before he returned- she was never away on the weekends.

"Don't do anything reckless. If you insist on interfering with whatever will happen in the Uchiha compound then you have to be extra careful, understand?"

"Yes. I'll be careful." He said with a smile

* * *

><p>Naruto took a deep breath before he opened the door to the classroom. The noise of the cheerful class hit him. They were all so happy and lively compared to the class he had seen in the dream. For a moment Naruto felt his heart squeeze painfully at the memory but he gritted his teeth and pushed it to the back of his mind.<p>

"Heya Naruto!" a random boy greeted him to which he gave a single nod in response.

"Na- chan!" Ai squealed in delight as she noticed his presence. A moment later he found himself in a hug.

"Oi! Get your hand hands off him Ai." Daiki shouted and tried to pull Naruto from Ai's embrace.

"You're only jealous you're not in his position Poochie." Ai mocked him.

"Even though you get good marks you're actually stupid aren't you?" Daiki shot back.

From atop his desk his puppy, Kokuten, gave a bark of agreement.

"Stop it!" Naruto said sharply and they both stopped immediately.

Naruto had never tried to stop their fights. For him to stop them and with such a tone, meant that something was wrong.

Ai pushed him back from her while still holding onto his shoulders.

"What's wrong Naruto? Did something happen?" she asked in a concerned tone.

Not only Ai and Daiki but also the rest of the group that they usually hung around with in class were now staring at him, all of them surprised by his tone.

"Come with me." He said to Ai and Daiki, "Yoshiki- chan and Amaya- chan, you come too."

The four of them followed him without any question.

When they were in a place that Naruto was sure was quiet and unmonitored he spoke.

"I had a dream last night that-" but here he found it difficult to continue.

All of them looked at him, paying close attention to his words.

"What was it about?" Amaya asked impatiently when it seemed like he was not going to continue.

Naruto lifted his head so that he was staring straight into her eyes. "That you died."

For a moment everyone was shocked by this statement. Amaya was the first to recover from her shock.

"Is that all?" she asked

Naruto shook his head. "It wasn't just a dream. IF we don't do something about it you're really going to die."

Once again everyone was shocked by the force in his words.

"What exactly did you see?" Daiki asked.

Now everyone's attention was on him. Something about the way he said it made them listen.

"I was in class and Kaya sensei came in and said you were dead. She didn't say how or anything only that something happened in the Uchiha complex."

"What happened?" Amaya asked. She really wanted to not believe him but her home was involved now.

He shrugged his shoulders "I only know that something happened but I don't know what."

"It was only a dream guys, no need to take it so seriously." Ai said in what was supposed to be a light tone.

"It wasn't just a dream." Naruto said fiercely. "I would have been able to tell if it was just an ordinary dream but it wasn't. Please trust me." He pleaded looking round at all of them.

"I trust you." Daiki said with a lopsided grin.

Naruto looked at the three girls his eyes asking them to say something. The three of them exchanged reluctant looks before Yoshiki sighed.

"Let's go with him on this."

"What?" the other two said.

"Look, it's better to be safe than sorry right?" she asked them.

They looked at each other and nodded.

"So what do you suggest we do?" Ai asked.

Naruto gave them a big grin. He was happy that they were finally listening to him.

"Stay away from the Uchiha compound. We can get some adults to go check it out instead." He replied

"I won't." Amaya said.

"Amaya?" Ai, turned to look at her friend. "I thought you agreed to listen to Naruto?"

"I know." She said, her hands firmly clenched at her sides, "But if what you're telling us is true then what you're asking me to do is to abandon my family for my safety!"

"That's not what he's saying Amaya!" Ai said trying to defend Naruto.

"I can't just run away to keep myself safe if I think they're in danger! Would you do that?"

"Amaya…"

"I'm not asking you to run away." Naruto said "but the fact is that there's nothing you can do if you go there alone."

"You said that I was also killed during that incident. That must mean that whatever it was happened after school was over. At least let me go during lunch and try to convince the people of the clan to check it out. If they know then there's a chance that we can stop whatever it is." She said in a way that told Naruto that she would do it anyway even without his assent.

Naruto looked reluctant to comply with her suggestion but eventually nodded, if it were him knew he wouldn't want to be told to sit down powerlessly when those he cared about were in trouble. "Just make sure that you're out of there before school is over."

Amaya nodded.

"So which adults do we tell?" Yoshiki asked, "They're not many adults who would take the words of a child seriously- especially if that child is you, Naruto."

"I'm not going to tell just any adult. I'm going to tell the hokage. He'll know what to do."

* * *

><p>This was not what Naruto wanted!<p>

As they had planned both he and Amaya had left the school at lunch time. Amaya went to the Uchiha compound and he went to the hokage office. But when he got here the Secretary had informed him that the hokage was in a meeting and Naruto was not allowed to barge in.

"How long are these meetings anyway?" he growled in frustration. He had been sitting there for more than two hours. Classes would be over soon.

He took one last look at the clock before he stood up from where he had been sitting. He didn't have time to sit around here… but who else could he ask? He had wanted to ask the hokage because everyone had to listen to the hokage- even the Uchiha.

Naruto sat on the grass in one of the training grounds that was close to the Academy.

"Who else can I ask? I doubt they will listen to Kaya- sensei or Iruka- sensei and if they don't listen to those two then they definitely won't listen to Gai- sensei. What do I do?" he groaned "Should I try talking to jiji again?"

"I should go look for Amaya and ask if she succeeded in convincing the Uchiha. If not then we have to quickly think of the next plan." To him the chances that the Uchiha would take her warnings were really low.

"Naruto!" Ai's voice called him as he approached the Academy. "How did it go? Could you see the hokage?" she asked.

He turned and saw that she along with the original three and Hinata were standing near his favourite swing "No, he was in a meeting so I wasn't allowed in." he said when he reached where they were, "How about you Amaya, any luck?"

She shook her head, "No, none at all."

That statement was completely correct. They were barely willing to listen to her and once she told them how she got her information and that she really did not know when or how this incident took place, they just ridiculed her. Even her mother had just reprimanded her and told her that associating with people like Naruto and Daiki would make her silly and irresponsible.

He sighed. He really had not wanted it to come to this but now he couldn't help it anymore, he didn't care about the consequences anymore. "Why don't you guys try talking to your parents, maybe they can do something about it."

"That's a good idea." Daiki said. "We all come from major clans, I'm sure there's got to be at least one person from one of our clans who will listen to us and take us seriously."

"That's right." Ai agreed "Naruto, you go back and wait for the hokage and talk to him as soon as possible. We should all meet back at training ground six once we're done with our tasks."

"Alright!" they all said before turning to leave.

"Why don't you come with me to see the Hokage Amaya?" Naruto asked turning to the older girl.

"It's okay Naruto. I'll go back and try again. Don't worry about me." Amaya said

"Just be careful okay? Be back at the training ground in two hours no matter what. If you're not there I'm going to come looking for you."

"I can take care of myself brat, don't forget that I'm an elite." She said without turning around to look at him.

"Yeah" he said with a smile. Amaya would be okay.

Of all the days that Leah had to have a mission this day was definitely one of the most inconvenient. He would have been much more comfortable if he could have had Leah follow Amaya. But it was no use wishing for the impossible it just wasted valuable time.

* * *

><p>Sitting in front of the old man's office, Naruto was at wit ends. When he had come during his lunch break he had been told that the old man was in the middle of a very important meeting. This time the old man was just busy with a debriefing or some ninja work of some kind but apparently it was still important so Naruto was still not allowed to see him.<p>

There was a small grumbling sound in his stomach and Naruto was reminded that because of his nervousness he hadn't eaten anything during lunch. He dug around in his small bag pack for his bentou.

He had just finished gobbling down the meal when he was given the go ahead.

"Good afternoon jiji." Naruto greeted.

"Ah, Naruto kun, it's good to see you. So what brings you here?" the hokage asked with a smile. No matter his mood or how busy he was he was always happy to see Naruto.

"I had a dream that something was going to happen at the Uchiha complex and I need you to help me stop it. Please jiji," Naruto said bowing from his waist down, "I don't know who else I can ask!"

The hokage was surprised. Not only by what Naruto had said but also by his manner in making this request.

"And what exactly happened in your dream that made you so worried?" the hokage asked.

"I don't know." Naruto said, "I just know that whatever it was killed my friend and I don't want that to happen!" he was frustrated and uneasy.

"Naruto, if even you don't know what happened then I can't help you." The hokage said with a sigh. "I doubt that the Uchiha would be willing to listen to such a vague warning."

"But you're the hokage right? You're the most powerful man in the village; they HAVE to listen to you!" Naruto argued.

"Yes, but what do you think I should tell them to do? Is a building going to collapse or maybe an out of control fire that they need to watch out for?"

Naruto didn't reply. He couldn't tell them anything definite because even he didn't know what was going to happen. This was a disaster, what could he do?

"You shouldn't worry too much about it Naruto," Sarutobi said with a kind smile "the Uchiha are one of the most powerful clans in the village, whatever it is I'm sure they can handle it."

Naruto gave a distracted nod that showed that he wasn't really listening.

"Yeah… they can handle it." Naruto said before turning around and leaving.

That was right, what had he been thinking? He hadn't. He had thought that if he could get the hokage on his side everything would be okay but what exactly had he wanted the hokage to do? He had had no concrete plan in his head. What exactly was going to go wrong at the Uchiha complex and why should they care? He had only known that it was something big- big enough that it could get his normally happy class to be solemn and tense rather than excited.

He sighed as he came to the clearing of training ground six. Ai must have chosen it because of its close proximity to the Uchiha complex. He had not accomplished anything. With the way things had gone it would have been better for him if he had just watched the Uchiha compound all day or had relaxed all day or something.

"No luck either?" Amaya's voice asked.

Naruto looked up and saw her standing some way away. He shook his head and sighed.

One by one the rest of the group filed into the training ground with no good news to report. Hinata never returned but Amaya had been expecting that seeing as the Hyuuga and Uchiha were not on good terms.

"So what are we going to do next?" Ai asked and they all turned to look at Naruto.

"I don't suppose you will agree to spend the night at Ai's house?" he asked Amaya.

"Not a chance." Amaya replied.

"But I wonder what's actually going to happen at the Uchiha complex. Are you sure you're just not over reacting Naruto?" Ai asked.

"I don't think that it was what happened at the Uchiha complex that got Naruto worried. It was just that whatever happened resulted in Amaya's death." Yoshiki replied for him, "Isn't it the exact same reason that we're doing all this even though we only have Naruto's dream to rely on? It's not that we really or strictly believe his dream, it's just that we're not willing to brush him aside because the life of our friend is at stake."

After that everyone was quiet for a while each person thinking about what Yoshiki had said and each of them knowing that it was for that very reason that they were not yet ready to give up.

At length Ai finally spoke. "Are you sure you don't want to come and spend the night at my house? I'm sure my parents won't mind even if it's a last minute arrangement."

"It's okay Ai. Thank you for the offer."

"Why don't we all just camp out here?" Daiki asked "Instead of sleeping we can all take turns to watch the Uchiha compound and if anything happens we'll be able to see it and give a helping hand or even run for help. That's okay isn't it?"

To be honest the reason why Daiki had joined them in the first place was because of Naruto. Naruto was his best friend and if he was worried about something then Daiki felt it was his duty to help him. However as the day had worn on Daiki had continued helping not just because of Naruto but because a friend, no matter how unwilling he was to admit that Amaya was one, was in danger.

"That's a good compromise isn't it Amaya?" Ai said happily

"I guess so," Amaya sighed tiredly. She may act like she was reluctant but she was secretly happy that her friends were willing to go so far for her.

"Should we tell our parents?" Yoshiki asked, "They might get worried if we don't come back tonight."

"They might also not let us out if they knew what we were doing." Daiki said.

"I'd feel better if we tell them." Ai said, getting up from her position on the grass. Her stomach grumbled and she was thankful that in thee failing light, her friends probably couldn't see her blush.

Daiki's stomach took that as its cue and grumbled too.

"I'll bring some snacks when coming back." She said as she left the clearing.

"I'm going too. I'll be back soon." Yoshiki said and had soon disappeared from their sights.

"How about you Inuzuka, aren't you going?" Amaya asked.

"Nope." Was Daiki's simple and short reply

She didn't bother asking Naruto since she knew he was an orphan. A short while later Daiki's stomach growled again.

"Ugh, where are those two?" he asked impatiently. He was really hungry.

"It's been only five minutes, calm down." Amaya said snappily. To be honest she was also hungry since she hadn't had anything to eat since breakfast. "That's it, I'm going to go get something to eat."

"You shouldn't go. Just wait till Ai and Yoshiki come back with the food." Naruto said.

"It's okay Naruto. My house is pretty close to the gate. I can be in and out in a jiffy and nothing will go wrong. I'll just grab a packet of biscuits or something and be back in ten minutes." She said before she quickly left.

"It's just us two now." Daiki said.

Naruto didn't say anything but just continued to stare off in the direction Amaya had taken.

"I'm going after her." He said finally.

"What?" Daiki asked.

"The reason we're here is to keep an eye on her. I don't want something to happen the moment we stop watching her."

"You can't go. I'll go." Daiki said. "I doubt the Uchiha will like having you at their gates at this time of day. At least they'll let me stay if I tell them I'm looking for Amaya. Don't worry about it. If anything happens I've got Kokuten with me."

"Okay, be careful." Naruto said as Daiki left as well

Naruto lay on his back staring up at the sky as he waited for his friends to return. His mind inadvertently drifted back to the dream he had had that morning. The shock he had felt when he learnt that Amaya was dead, his sadness and his determination to stop it. He didn't want her to die. Now that he was thinking about it he realised that even though he wanted to be a ninja he had never thought about death. He only had childish dreams of saving people and defeating the bad guys never actually killing anyone. To him death was a distant reality, something you heard about with distant emotions or you read about in books while glad that you weren't present. The emotions that he had experienced in his dream were still fresh in his memory and that moment he decided that death in reality was much worse than anything you could read in books. Once they became ninjas would this sort of worrying become normal? Would they always be worried about the life of one friend or the other, constantly looking over their shoulders to make sure that the people they cared about were safe? No it would be worse. Because now they could at least stay beside one another but once became ninjas they would be separated.

Before Naruto could further pursue this train of thought a small noise caught his attention. He looked around and saw the small fur ball that was Daiki's puppy.

"Kokuten!" Naruto exclaimed rushing onto his feet. "Where are they?" he asked and the dog immediately turned around and began to lead him to where Daiki and Amaya were.

* * *

><p>Soon after Daiki had left Naruto to follow Amaya he had caught up. She had not gone that far.<p>

"What are you doing here Inuzuka?" she asked sharply. Her irritation showing through.

"I'm your escort." Daiki replied lightly, "Naruto- sama has tasked me with ensuring you return safely."

Amaya had snorted and for the rest of the journey they had walked in silence.

When the two of them had walked through the gates unstopped by guards a small alarm had gone off in his head but he had ignored it. It was probably because he was with Amaya that they were letting him be. Still there was something in the air that was causing him to feel uncomfortable and it was only when Kokuten, unnerved by the smell, had finally brought it to his attention that he had finally realised what exactly was causing him unease: blood.

The smell of blood was in the air.

"We should get out of here now and get some help." Daiki had whispered to her. The atmosphere of this place demanded that he speak in a whisper.

"Why? What's wrong?" Amaya had immediately caught onto his mood and was also speaking quietly.

Daiki fidgeted unsure what to say. If he told her what would she do? But not telling her would make her panic and she might do something stupid.

"I can smell blood, a lot of it."

"What?" Amaya asked in a furious whisper before setting off ahead of him. No doubt to go and check on her family.

"Amaya wait!" he called after her but she didn't stop. "Ugh, that girl." He said in annoyance, "Kokuten go get Naruto and bring him here. Quietly. Something is wrong." He told the puppy that had been walking beside him.

Once Kokuten had left he also took off in the direction Amaya had headed.

When they had reached Amaya's home they had found the body of her family members sprawled out in different places. Amaya had been silent as she had checked each of the bodies. Daiki had stayed close to her no matter where she went. The smell of blood that was heavy in the air combined with the sight of the bodies made him want to puke.

"Who was it? Who was it that killed them?" she asked in a trembling voice. Daiki could see her shaking shoulders. "I'll kill every single one of them!" she cried out in rage. In her eyes there were tears. Tears that kept pouring out even though she was angry.

"Calm down Amaya. No need to do anything rash. If those guys killed your family then they could just as easily kill you especially as you're such a mess right now." Daiki said, grabbing and holding onto her hand tightly so she could not escape.

"Let go of my hand Inuzuka." She said in a low and threatening tone.

"I won't. Not until you calm down and are thinking straight." He said firmly.

"I said let. Go. Of. My. Hand." She repeated

"I said I refuse. If I were to let you go to a pointless death then I won't be able to face Ai, Yoshiki and Naruto. Stop being so selfish. The whole day they've been worried about you and trying to find a way to save you, if you go off and die for a pointless reason right now how do you think they'll feel?" he said.

At the mention of their other friends she calmed down a little.

"So what do we do now?" she asked

"We have to get out of here and tell someone. This is your best bet to save your family, you can't do anything else." He replied.

At this point Amaya had to comply. Even if she didn't want to admit it, an enemy that could kill her whole family was out of her league.

"Okay, let's go." She said wiping her eyes of tears. Right now was not the time to cry, they had to find help.

The two of them had just left the house and were looking around to see if the coast was clear when a shadow fell on them.

"Well, well, what do we have here?" a voice said and they looked up to see a man in an orange swirly mask standing there looking down at them from the only eyehole in the mask.

"Who are you?" Daiki asked trying to stand his ground even though all his senses were asking him to run for it.

"Well, I would tell you but you don't need to know." The man replied.

Daiki's mind was now screaming but before he could do anything he heard a small 'yip' from the side and next thing he knew the whole place was covered in smoke.

Without a second thought he grabbed Amaya's hand and made a dash in the direction the 'yip' had come from.

* * *

><p>Naruto had been slightly panicked when Kokuten had come into the training ground but that had not stopped him from quickly moving to action. As he had raced to where they were he had kept repeating one phrase in his mind: 'please let them be okay!'<p>

When he had finally come in sight of them his legs were aching from the exertion and his lungs were burning but his mind seemed clearer than it had been all day and he was glad for the tiny smoke bombs which were always in his pocket for emergencies.

He had stood there waiting for his friends to emerge but they didn't and when the smoke cleared he saw that they Daiki was leaning slumped against the wall of the house and Amaya was held firmly off the ground around her throat.

What was this? Why was this happening? Naruto's mind was searching for a solution when he noticed that Amaya had stopped struggling. As if in slow motion he saw the blade being pulled out from her heart and his mind went numb. He could see as her body fell to the ground and he moved to catch it.

Naruto was only slightly aware of what was going on around him as he held Amaya's body in his hands

"Amaya? Amaya- chan you're okay right? Amaya?" but she didn't respond and her body just remained limp in his hands.

He slowly turned to face her killer with eyes filled with anger. The person had just stood there watching the scene.

"You'll pay." Had those words been said out loud or had he thought them. All around him the world seemed to have slowed down.

He felt his chakra pour out of his body and form into claws around his hands much faster than he had ever been able to make them form. He rushed at the man in the mask his mind intent only on stopping him, on making him pay. Every time he tried to hit the man he seemed to warp away, Naruto could make out the subtle shifts of the man's form but could not keep up.

Faster, he needed to be faster and stronger. He had to be.

Behind the mask the man's eyes widened as he realised that each time the small boy slashed at him he seemed to be a bit faster than before. Having had enough and seen what he wanted to see he brought his legs up to kick Naruto away.

Naruto saw this move coming and summersaulted out of the way to avoid it. He got ready to move again but found that his legs wouldn't obey him. The he felt a sharp pain in his stomach and he doubled over coughing out blood. His muscles ached, much more than they ever had. His head was aching and the world around him was once again moving at its normal speed. His ears, Naruto felt like they were exploding. His whole body was in pain. He couldn't think at all and he wanted nothing more than to give in to the darkness that was calling him but he still had to defeat that man. But his body… his body wasn't agreeing to obey him…

The man had stood watching as the blond boy's body seemed to be giving out on him- probably as a result of whatever technique it was that the boy had used. Well it wasn't any of his concern. More likely than not the boy would die without him having to do anything, all he had to do was take care of the Inuzuka boy that was slumped against the wall.

"Get lost!" a threatening voice said just next to his ears as he stood over the dark haired boy ready to make his move.

Who was it? He hadn't heard anyone coming up behind him.

"Who are you?" he asked.

"You don't need to know but make another move and I don't care if it goes against my orders, I will deal with you as I see fit."

The man gave a slight chuckle "very well then." And with that he disappeared.

Leah stood there for a few seconds to ensure that the man really was gone before she made her way over to where Naruto was struggling to keep his consciousness.

"I should have known." She sighed. The last time she had gone off he had gone and brought a 'character' to life. This time he had… maybe she should stop taking missions altogether.

She sighed as she gave him a basic healing. The chakra of the kyuubi was already working hard to fix his body. She looked over to where the body of Amaya Uchiha lay on the ground and she felt tears prick her eyes. Even if she had seen it so many times it was still difficult to stomach it- not to mention that this girl was still a child who hadn't even yet graduated.

The Inuzuka boy was fine, mostly. He would recover completely. As for Naruto, he better thank the kyuubi in his body; after all, that was the only reason he was still alive. This day was a disaster…

* * *

><p>Naruto slowly opened his eyes. He felt the light hit them and he closed them again with a slight groan.<p>

"Naruto?" a voice asked from his left.

"Daiki?" Naruto asked as he turned his head and opened his eyes just enough that he could make out his friend's blurry form. "Close the windows will ya?"

"Sure thing!" Daiki said eagerly, happy that his friend had finally woken up.

"Are you… okay?" Naruto asked when he saw the bandages that were wrapped around Daiki's head.

"Yeah, it was nothing much. You're the one that everybody's been worried about."

"I'm fine." Naruto said. His muscles still ached and his body was sore but more than that: "Amaya?" he already knew the answer but it didn't hurt to hope right?

Daiki's face fell. "She didn't make it. I'm sorry, even though I was there..." He said. He had been the one who said he would go with her but he hadn't been able to do anything. Even Naruto had ended up hurt because he was too weak… He hadn't been able to protect them because he was too weak… He felt a lump rise to his throat.

"You don't have anything to apologise for. I also couldn't do anything, he was too strong. I'm just glad that at least you're okay." Naruto said with a sigh. His eyes were now fixed on the white ceiling. He was numb on the inside. Amaya was dead but he wasn't crying. He didn't feel like crying. He didn't feel like anything he just felt empty.

"Ah, um Yoshiki and Ai dropped by earlier to leave you some cupcakes and flowers." Daiki said swallowing the lump in his throat. "Kaya- sensei also came by to leave some cup ramen and Iruka- san and some guy in a green suit and some of our classmates also came by."

"Yeah, thanks." Naruto said looking at the stuff that was piled on his bed side table but not really seeing them.

"Oh and Hinata, when she came to see me, she left you a chocolate cake and a get well card." Daiki continued.

"Okay."

"Um, Naruto,"

"Yeah?" Naruto said looking at Daiki.

"I'll grow stronger."

Naruto raised an eyebrow at Daiki's words.

"If I'd been stronger then I'd have been able to protect her and you wouldn't be here. Before you woke up I was wondering 'what if it had been you or Hinata in that position?' I'd have been too weak to do anything. So I've got to get stronger so that I can protect you guys. That's why I'm going to get stronger."

A smile made its way up to Naruto's face at Daiki's words "Me too. I have to grow stronger too. So we just need to get stronger together right?"

"Yeah!" Daiki smiled. "I'll see you later." Daiki said as he left the room. He'd have preferred to stay with Naruto but he promised his mom he would be home for lunch.

"Thank you very much for saving him Leah." He said once the door had been shut behind Daiki.

"You're welcome." She said from the chair where she had been sitting in her full form, unseen by any other person but him. "You did a real number on yourself this time didn't you?"

"Yeah."

"Even when I told you to be careful."

"I'm sorry."

"You could have died."

"I know."

"You tried your best."

"Yeah… I really wanted to save her." He said with a wobbling voice

"I know." She said holding his trembling form in her hands.

"In the end I couldn't do anything." He said as he remembered her limp form in his hands. All at once all the numbness disappeared and the tears came flowing out. He hadn't managed to do anything to the person that killed her and he'd almost killed himself. It was pathetic.

"It's alright." Leah soothed.

Naruto stayed sobbing into Leah until he fell asleep. It didn't take him that long seeing as his body was still recovering but before he slept he made a decision and he was going to through with it.

* * *

><p><em>Thanks for the times that you've given me<em>

_The memories are all in my mind_

_And now that we've come_

_To the end of our rainbow_

_There's something I must say out loud_

* * *

><p>Naruto and Daiki stood in front of a grave stone with the name 'Amaya Uchiha' engraved on it. Hinata stood a little further away while the two boys said their final goodbyes.<p>

Neither of them said anything but both of them silently made a promise to become stronger. Strong enough to protect their friends and those they cared about. Because they never again wanted to see someone whom they cared about in danger right in front of their eyes and be unable to do anything about it. They may both be weak now and Amaya may be dead but while they could not bring Amaya back they could grow stronger and protect those that were still alive. And one day when they were strong enough they were going to go in search of the man who had killed her and make him pay.

"Alright then Hinata, time to go." Daiki said. He looked at Naruto and as their eyes met they could understand what the other was thinking. They both grinned before Daiki spoke again "Let's go get some ramen."

"After that then we can go train right?" Daiki said. "No use wasting a perfectly good day moping when we could be using it to become stronger.

"Yep." Naruto said.

"Okay." Hinata said

Leah smiled as she watched them leave. Naruto would be just fine. She could tell.

* * *

><p><em>You're once<em>

_Twice_

_Three times a lady_

_And I love you…_

The commodores (Three times a lady)

* * *

><p>Good bye Amaya. Good bye everyone. See you next time.<p> 


End file.
